The Second Great Imaginary War
by EPAF
Summary: 4 years after the events of the 'Imaginationland' Trilogy, the realms of Reality & Imagination face an imminent demise at the hands of THE war to end all wars - The Second Great Imaginary War! CharacterxCharacter, AU, Cross-Genre, Cross-Over, Everything.
1. Intro

**Author's Notes: So, here we go – what I describe as, of this moment, my Magnum Opus fic combining everything possible including action, adventure, romance, fantasy, AU, angst, slash, plot-twists, cross-overs, and of course, cameos from some of the most well-known Imaginary characters in existence. This will also run along my other fic 'Imagined Love' which is a sequel to this fic – THIS being the prequel of said fic and I'll be updating each fic at balanced intervals. And with that said, let's begin the story of The Second Great Imaginary War...**

**-**

**Intro**

He'd lost count of how far he'd fled from the town. Judging by the blur of the ground, he was getting pretty close, if not already passing, the boundary of the town and into the open lands of the fields. The skies were surprisingly much greyer and cloudier than they usually were – a fitting setting for a situation which only a few moments ago, had struck terror and chaos into the very faces and hearts of the innocent characters in the town. It would only be a matter of time before the entire dimension radiated the same feelings and emotions as he so did now.

He looked back for a brief second now and again – scared of how far or worse, how close HE was to catching up to him. The fear only fuelled his speed and need to get as far away from the area as possible. But even that energy was running low and he knew that the eventual pain was imminent. Still, even with that running through his head, he continued to sprint into the distance – his wings too cold and weak to give him any sort of advantage in the air. _Of all the times_, he kept saying to himself even though he knew regret would do nothing in this situation but hinder his main goal of running as fast as he could. The land soon turned to hills and he was finding it hard to keep on his feet. His past experience as a flyer rather than a runner wasn't doing him any favours, especially in this situation. But he had no choice – his legs would have to give him as many favours as they could possibly give. The object that he had tight grip on and was now clenching closely against his chest was worth more than any pair of wings or legs. For him to be holding such an object was honor in itself. Then again, the situation at present was proving rightly that importance and survival always came first before honor.

But suddenly, out of nowhere and even at an unpredicted precise time...it happened. **BANG! **went the gunshot. It was only a sharp second after that sound that he went into a slow state of physical reflection. All he could feel in his right leg now was a strange piercing feeling. A strange feeling soon dramatically turned into a painful feeling as he looked down and realised the very horror of what had just happened. He had been shot in the leg.

Landing face-first on the grassy slope and rolling down a good 50 feet to the bottom of the slope, he lifted his head up but soon found it tougher to raise any other part of his body up any higher. He flipped his body over and inspected the large bloody hole in his leg – blood pouring out of it and trickling down onto his light white clothes and ocean blue skin. Breathing hard and on the brink of tears, he quickly looked up in shocking realisation that HE might be in front of him right now. But instead, all he saw was the sloping hill that he had just now rolled down in pain. His breaths still quick and heavy, he slowly wriggled his damaged body around 180 degrees, but just as he soon made that final degree of turn, out in front of him stood the very person he was running from. Screaming in fear for a brief second, he hopped back with what energy he had left in him to the edge of the sloped hill – watching 

as HE slowly walked closer and closer to his injured self. Looking up in sheer fear, all he saw was a shadow-covered face lacking emotion and as cold as the very wind that was blowing downwards on the ground at present.

"Well well well...looks like your little journey has come to an end, my winged freaky friend." He spoke in a cold and heartless voice.

"Why? Why are you doing this?!" The injured creature spoke in a tear-filled voice – inhaling air from the sheer pain that was increasing in his right leg.

"Because I can...why do you think?" He responded – giving no sign to any other form of emotion.

"But...you're a creator. Creators do not act upon this way..."

"Oh, but I think you'll see I am acting upon my ways." He snatched the object from the creature's weak arms. Looking at it in sheer delight, he spoke once more. "And THIS, will ensure I keep that role going in more ways than one."

"No...you can't. Creators aren't allowed to have that sort of power."

"Oh? Well..." He pulled back the slide on the gun and pointed it at the creature's head. "...unfortunately, I beg to differ." He raised a cold smirk once more and looked down at the weak character. "HA...you know, I always hated anime. Only fitting that I get the chance to kill-off one of its own characters...literally."

"No...PLEASE..."

But it was too late. **BANG! **the gun went for a second time. This time, the bullet had lodged itself right in the character's heart – an ever increasing tone of red appearing from underneath the white garment it was wearing. "Make use of your last sixty seconds of existence. I doubt anybody will ever be imagining you back here." He laughed – placing the gun back under his coat and walking away with the object firmly in his hands.

As the winged creature lay dieing by the side of the hill, he knew that he wasn't going to survive. Even if anybody were to find him, it would be too late to save his imaginary life. Having made one final decision with the few breaths he had left, he picked out a technological device from out of his pocket and pressed the red button down as hard as he could. A few moments later, once he had finished with what he had set out to do, a blue button with the word 'Send' was hit...and a second later, the device was dropped onto the floor. The body went still – the character had died.

The device's technological waves of communication whizzed across the skies of every corner of that dimension and began to travel towards similar devices of its kind. And it would be there in those other devices, where a red-level signal would be sent and in result, be heard by the other 9 characters that held such devices. And it wasn't long before all 9 identical signals were received and heard well:

The first reaching a character dwelling in a deep forest.

The second reaching a character found on a sneaking mission in Alaskan-like temperatures.

The third reaching a character based in the World of flat levels and frame rates.

The fourth reaching a character sitting in the very controller of time and relative dimensions in space.

The fifth reaching a character flying through the air with magical talent.

The sixth reaching a character soaring through the heavens of the Gods with sacred wings.

The seventh reaching a character glowing with energy in a state of training.

And the eighth and ninth reaching characters of once star-crossed love.

Like an unbreakable line of fate, all nine characters received the message and made no delay in rushing as fast as possible to the source of the signal. And it was only a matter of time before they all arrived one after the other:

The first character – floating down a tube of blue ambient light wearing legendary green clothes.

The second character – landing and de-activating his stealth camo in a kneeling-down position.

The third character – following the path of his own pre-made frames.

The fourth character – stepping out of a once fading in blue box.

The fifth character – moving off his one-of-a-kind broomstick.

The sixth character – hovering down smoothly with his strong angelic wings in aid.

The seventh character – teleporting into existence as if from thin air.

And finally, the eighth and ninth characters – jumping off their noble flying steed by one another's side.

Looking at one another and understanding their purpose for being here, they moved close towards the lifeless body of the character that lay by the slope of the hill. Picking up the object that lay at his feet and pressing the play button on its side, a glowing holographic image appeared from the tiny projector in the middle. The image portrayed the very face of the character now dead in front of them. Suddenly, the voice of that character's face began to speak:

"**Strength of Nine – characters of the greatest heights who have travelled from the farthest corners of the Imagination, behold my last words of life and understand the terrible situation we are now facing..."**

The characters listened and listened well to the words that were spoken to them. As the voice's story went further, all nine started to feel all kinds of mixed emotions – fear, confusion, shock...and even anger. But the words they heard were as clear and as pure as the very purpose that they had now made between them. And as the voice came to his last few words, all nine finally knew what needed to be done.

"**...Thank you...and goodbye. May the fate of Imaginationland lie with the power of the Strength of Nine...and the destiny...of '**_**The Complete One'.**_**"**

And with that, the message had ended. And so, the sight had been set. First up, was a journey to a location far beyond the realm of this Imaginationland. The location: Planet Earth...North America...USA...Colorado...**South Park**.

**-**

**Author's Notes: So, there we have the introductory chapter. I left some clues (two sets of clues actually) into who will be making up the list of cameo characters entitled 'The Strength of Nine' who will be playing a vital role in this story as well. I've already determined which characters overall will be featured and/or make an appearance in this fic, so I hope that I can make everyone who's reading this smile with the inclusion of their favourite characters and whatever.**


	2. Another Normal Day

**Author's Notes: The first actual chapter of the story and the introductory to our four main characters of the story.**

**-**

**Another Normal Day**

**Earth Day June 1****st**** 2012 (Leap Year Day 153) – 12:32pm**

It was a pleasantly quiet day in the small snow-covered mountain town of South Park. It was a sunny Saturday afternoon and as usual, Stan, Kyle, Kenny & Butters were hanging around at Kyle's place watching a bit of TV. Although they knew they could be doing something better than sitting around watching a load of typical old Saturday afternoon crap, they all agreed that all the cool stuff like watching a DVD or playing an online game should be left to the later times after 6 or 7ish. The first rule of teen entertainment, they all knew, was that you should NEVER use that area of recreation for afternoon purposes. It was a designated evening enjoyment and no amount of boredom or lack of excitement or pleasure should ever break that rule.

The four boys were all 14 year old teenagers now – their manly selves had changed slightly, some more in certain places, but apart from that, they looked pretty much the same as they did 4 years ago. They still dressed in the same jackets and shirts and pants and shoes and yes, even hats. Unlike many kids in their grade by now, they had seemed like the only ones who hadn't changed their hair style or hair colour for that matter, whatsoever – Stan still had black hair that was slightly longer in places than in the past, Kyle was still slightly embarrassed to give his bushy red Jew-fro any spotlight in the sun, Kenny remained with his scruffed-up dirty-blond hair that looked like a complete mess and Butters although grown to cover his entire head, the light blond hair still remained spiky but short.

"WOW, TV definitely sucks today." Stan spoke, breaking the silence that had absorbed the room for a few minutes now. Sat on the floor with his back leaning against the sofa, he continued to flick through the hundreds of digital channels to find something that was remotely watchable.

"Y-yeh...it sure is...kinda sucky today, huh fellas." Butters added trying to be a part of the conversation of which he knew he wouldn't get a response from. In his own mind, he knew that the only reason he had only been invited around was that Cartman hadn't shown up at all today or in fact the past couple of weeks for that matter. _I'm sick of being used as a filler person_, he continued to say to himself in his head as he for some odd reason allowed to be used as just a background object rather than another friend for these three other guys.

Stan eventually found a channel near-enough providing some kind of interest – the local news network was on one of its looping breaking stories about strange energy readings being detected in the Park fields just outside of town.

"Tom, I'm standing in the outskirt fields just 5 miles outside of South Park..." The news-reporter began. "...the local authorities and the FBI have already begun work on investigating this mysterious detection of unusual energy signals coming from this area of fields. In reply to previous questions posed by many reports earlier, the FBI responded by saying that they didn't think this was just another hoax adding, 'Oh come on...do you really think we're THAT fucking stupid?'."

"Hmmm...that sounds slightly odd." Kyle spoke – sat on the far side of the couch opposite to where Kenny was.

"Gee...I wonder what...errr...Cartman would say about this..." Butters added – trying again to get a conversation going on his whereabouts.

"Yeh...hey where is Cartman anyway?"

"What, fat-ass...who cares, as long as he's not interrupting us having a good Saturday with some peace and quiet for once."

"Oh come on fellas, Cartman ain't that bad." Butters spoke defending Cartman.

"Butters...the last time we saw him, he launched a bike through your window and then blamed it on you, remember?"

"Y-yeh...and my parents were...pretty mad and unhappy with me there, yes-er-ee."

"Butters, how can you let him do that to you...don't you ever get mad at him for that or anything?"

"Well, shucks fellas, course I do..."

"You're just a faggy lil' coward, that's all..." Kenny smiled finding the whole event amusing.

"Hey, now I am...not a coward..." Butters began getting slightly defensive for himself. "I just...thought it was a little accident, that's all."

"Ha, well it sounds to me that you're in love with him or something."

"Awwww...DUDE..." Stan exclaimed. "That's gay...like...REALLY gay."

"Stan, he's entitled to his own opinion..." Kyle surprisingly responded to Stan.

"Huh?"

"OH...ummm...nothing...NOTHING." Kyle hurried back to keeping his focus back on the telly and drove what remaining focus was left away from the conversation. Looking out of the corner of his eye, Kyle felt as if he'd dodged yet another bullet...again. In the emotional and psychological state he had found himself in, this was getting too close for comfort to be giving such remarks as this outloud. _If only they knew..._He said to himself – looking down to the corner of his eye again. _If only HE knew..._

In true honesty, these past four years had affected all four guys in more ways than one. Firstly, Stan had become more isolated and alone with himself against his family and relatives. His mother and father didn't understand him anymore, his sister continued to bully him like no ends were being met and his grandfather was annoyingly continuing to order Stan to kill him. School wasn't going so well either and everytime he went outside, he would get scared or feel even lonelier and by himself against the cold and unwelcoming unknown that is the real World. Secondly, there was Kenny. His parents had just managed to scrape together enough money to buy him a brand new orange parka that actually fit, but even that had cost them dearly and now they were feeding off worse than just bread and water. Sometimes, it would be a case of making a decision between food and fuel. It would explain the reason why Kenny would always find himself sleeping over the night, or in some cases, two nights at either Stan's or Kyle's house. He felt more comfortable, warmer, safer, and best yet, more full with food at either's house in comparison to his shit-hole of a home. But it wasn't just materialistic values that were weighing him down; it was un-materialistic values as well. More and more Kenny got the feeling that Stan and Kyle, Kyle especially, was abandoning him as a friend and was simply asking him to tag along just to make up the numbers. However, it's something he didn't NOT expect from past experience. For four years now, Kenny had suffered plenty of moments of being a background character rather than an actual friend. Whether it was because Stan and Kyle had something going on between them and Kenny wasn't a part of it, or not, he didn't know...but one thing he was certain of, was that he was beginning to be pulled away from what he first classed as a true friendship with two of the nicest dudes he's ever known. _I wonder if..._that thought would linger constantly in his mind over a certain "something" – something which had bugged him for the past four years and something which related back to Stan and Kyle themselves. As for Butters, his experiences needn't be explained thoroughly. Constantly bullied, constantly grounded and constantly being put in the worst cases and scenarios of every situation, he was not living a good life whether at home or out of home. He had tried to build a friendship between Stan, Kyle and Kenny for four years now and he knew in his heart of hearts that things hadn't got any better. _They still use me..._he knew in his mind – the hurtful thought pounding in his brain like some kind of sharp cane.

With the TV still stuck to reporting the latest breaking news on the local news network, the four guys had gone into their own little Worlds of thoughts. And Kyle, especially, was in more thought than the three combined. Although he had shown very little interest in the matter in open conversation, the fact over where Cartman was today, and in that matter, where he had been these past couple of weeks had still gotten him puzzled. _He's probably planning something retarded like he always does..._his first assumption came. _That or he's ditched us, for good..._The second idea was something he'd hoped much more would be true. But whatever the explanation was, Kyle couldn't give a dam – after all, this was Cartman they were talking about. And Kyle, of all people, would be the least likely person to show any sympathy or worry for Cartman's lack of an appearance._ The longer he's away, the better I say..._the thought of Cartman being away hopefully for a further amount of days and weeks made him smile a little. But his next automatic line of thought, which was about something inked to Kyle, made his smile quickly fade out and be replaced with a stressful sign of fear and slight sadness. Whatever he was discussing with himself was certainly not giving him an easy time. If anything, it was certainly a topic he had a lot of focus on.

Suddenly, there was a loud banging on the door. The sound was too powerful to be a knock and the sound thudded its way directly into Kyle's living room.

"Come in!" Kyle shouted.

The pounding struck from outside for a second door, this time with more heavier force and less sequenced timing.

"COME IN!" Kyle yelled – getting slightly annoyed at the knocker's lack of hearing such a loud call. The pounding struck for a third time. "Goddam it!" Kyle moaned unhappily – jumping off his seat and walking to the door to open it. Removing the annoyed look on his face, he placed his hand on the doorknob and rotated it – allowing the door to open towards him and blocking his view for a brief half-second. What he saw in front of him once the door had passed his vision was both shocking and confusing.

There, leaning against the outside of the doorframe was a young boy looking no older than 12 or 13. Gasping heavily for breath and coughing up saliva, he looked up at a shocked Kyle and smiled a little.

"Oh...thank God...I made it."

"Ummmmm...can I...help...you?" Kyle asked with shocked tones running through his voice.

"It's you...THANK GOD...it's you!"

"Me?"

"YES...YOU!" The young boy exclaimed – jumping up with what energy it seemed he had little of in him.

"...Who's at the door, Kyle?" Stan asked, walking in from the living room into the hall to which the young boy's eyes widened beyond imagination. Letting out a deeper breath, he began to walk inside.

"And YOU too!? Oh, praise the heavens..."

"Huh?"

Kenny and Butters soon walked into the hall full of curiosity now. And as soon as Butters had entered the young boy's line of sight, the view on his face was surprisingly bright. "You..." The young boy took a couple of steps forward. "...it is YOU?!"

"Me?" Butters added.

"Alright...this is enough..." Kyle forced. "...what the hell is going on?! WHO are you...and why are you walking into my house looking so shocked like this."

"OK...OK...I'll explain, I apologize, I'm sorry." The boy started gasping again. "But please, can I have a drink of water first?"

"...Fine..." Kyle turned. "Butters...go get him a glass of water..."

"But Kyle I..."

"Just DO it!"

"Oh jeez..." Butters ran off straight to the kitchen – the young boy continuing to give him a look of absolute shock and infinite delight.

A few minutes later, Kyle had brought all five of them to the dining table. The young boy had just finished gulping down the last bit of water from out of his cup. Placing it carefully on a nearby coaster, he placed his hands on the table and took another deep breath – a deep breath of which he knew he needed for what he was about to say.

"Alright...listen...there's no easy way for me to say this and there's possibly no easy way for you to accept it either, I guess..."

"Just spit it out already, my arms are falling asleep here." Kenny responded – giving attention to the fact that he had both hands leaning underneath his face with his arms arched on top of the table.

"OK...this is all of what I know of the situation so far. After all, I'm just a servant of a tiny piece of our land, after all."

"WHAT situation, goddam it!"

"The situation that WE now face – that ALL of us now face."

"Who's WE?"

The young boy looked up slowly and prepared the next single word onto the tip of his tongue. "...Imaginationland..."

The sound of such a word sent a shock into all four boys' faces. That name, that word...that memory. It was all too familiar and too unforgettable for them to simply let go of these past years.

Four years ago, as if by accident, all four of them had to all opinion, became the first ever human individuals to take steps into a realm that was beyond all past thoughts, beliefs and feelings previous. Imaginationland – a World created BY humans, FOR Imaginations was the centre of every single imaginary creation, thought, idea, feeling and location – both of the good, and of the evil sort alike. It was on that day, four years ago, that an unannounced terrorist group had taken a village of Imaginationland hostage and was intending to blow up The Barrier Wall that separated the good half of Imaginationland from the evil side. Upon the terrorist's successful destruction of one of the doors of the great wall, all hell had broken loose in the once peaceful land of Imaginations. Not only that but it was the beginning of the first ever struggle and in result, great war between good and evil imaginary characters. There, at Castle Sunshine, located directly just North of the central region of Imaginationland, war was declared and fought between the two sides for eventual total control of the entire realm of imagination.

After a long and bloody imaginary battle, the good side of Imaginationland had eventually triumphed over the evil side after heavy losses had forced the evil side to retreat back to their own badlands. However, dramatic events were soon to unfold afterwards as out of the sky, after a few more **Creators **had fallen from the clouded skies, a weapon of mass destruction, a Nuclear Missile struck the land with an immense and apocalyptic power – brightening the area and killing off anything and everything around. The sheer power of such a weapon and especially a weapon based in the realm of Reality, had in fact torn a hole in the very fabric of the Imagination, causing it to implode on itself. What was left, was an empty nothingness – a realm of infinite white that stretched for as far as the eye could see and for as long as the mind could imagine.

"Hey I remember this part." Butters interrupted - realising what part of the story they were at now that the young boy thought was necessary to remind them of.

Continuing on, the young boy soon turned to telling them of great joy and happiness throughout Imaginationland. Upon Butters' successful attempt to imagine back the entire existence and realm of Imaginationland, and once the **Creators** had been successfully taken back to their own realm, the characters and population of Imaginationland spread an unimaginable amount of positivity and joy throughout the land. **Creators** had finally been to their great realm and a few problems aside, the overall experience had turned out very successfully and wonderfully. In the past, the characters of Imaginationland showed major fears and doubts over whether to bring **Creators **to Imaginationland for fear of not only what their reactions would be, but also what it would do to the entire existence of the realm as a whole. In fact, it had taught them wonderful things about **Creators **and their reactive human-filled ways of feeling and thinking in such bizarre and un-Earthly conditions and situations. One year passed and without delaying any further, an agreement was made to allow human beings of planet Earth to come to Imaginationland to spend some time taking in the sights, sounds and indeed, existence of such a place thought up by their very selves.

_A truly wonderful and creative idea to fulfil_, the characters gladly spoke to one another on the case. _A creative idea indeed created...by the created_,another opinion gladly passed from lip to lip throughout Imaginationland. It was a clear sign that such an idea was accepted in all regions and all lands throughout the great stretch and realm that was Imaginationland.

And it was only a couple of weeks ago that the first of what hopefully would be many **Creators**, was invited to their lands for a short visit. He was a young boy about the guys' age now – he had briefly been to Imaginationland those four years ago, and so was an acceptable example to choose first to invite back to their great imaginary realm. Everything started off fine and great to begin with. The boy gladly accepted their invitation and so was given the knowledge of how to pass into the realm via the Imagination song and the exact words and tones that were needed in it in order to gain access. Upon his arrival and the return of those characters that had travelled to the realm of reality, a greeting party was there to begin showing the boy around the lands and to offer their welcome of the upmost highest quality.

"And that's when it all went wrong..." The young boy's head arched down with his hands close to his face. "...that's when it all started..."

Like something out of a horror story, the boy quickly turned on the Imaginary characters – imagining a gun into existence at which he began firing at them all – killing off innocent imaginary characters one by one. The confusion turned to panic and quickly turned to chaos. They tried to stop him, but every character that did so, ended up dead. The boy's twisted and sinister ways soon turned to madness as he moved on through the nearby village – shooting endless streams of bullets into buildings, stalls and worse, the bodies of every imaginary character that dare try and stop him.

"I was there when it happened..." The young boy spoke – his eyes locked shut with sheer fear of recalling that hideous moment. The young boy was in the market stall at the time. The stall was situated in a large village square just opposite of where the village Mayor's building was located as well. He'd finished for the day with his teachings at the local character's school and so decided to take a nice break in the local market that was taking place at that given time. However, what started off as a nice break soon turned to a fearful struggle. "All I heard was gunshots followed by characters screaming and crying for help everywhere." The packed square of characters was getting squashed together in a state of panic and fear of what was moving into the square at that given moment. As more gunshots were let off, the square soon split apart literally from its own high state of fear and panic and the young boy was soon in everybody's line of feared sight. Moving towards the mayor's office, the shock was amplified further by the fact that the boy had an injured hostage trapped in his grip with the gun pointed directly on the side of the character's head.

"I later learned that it was through the welcoming party that the boy learned of the Mayor's Office...and of the "object" that lay deep within that building."

"What object?"

The young boy looked up again and continued. Nobody in Imaginationland really knew what this "object" was and what its purpose was – it had never been discussed out-loud between characters and was a subject that only those of high status knew about. But even they couldn't discuss the matter – it was of THAT much importance. However, something of such importance would soon turn into a matter of even higher importance. The young boy told of how he along with the rest of the square saw a young angelic-like character with blue skin and white clothes running out of the building with the very "object" mentioned in firm grip in his hands. _A Mayor's most important order to one of his workers, _he presumed, realising that possession of that "object" was of high importance above any other form of work or survival. Realising that the young boy had spotted him, the character quickly sprinted out of the square and towards the nearest village exit which was only down the large stretch of one of the streets connected to the square. That was the last anybody saw of the character – followed shortly by the young boy who began chasing him out of the village too.

"Nobody has heard or even seen that young character anywhere since then. Which means only one thing..." He looked back up and sighed. "...That young boy has indeed managed to obtain the "object" which we were guarding."

There was a brief pause of silence for a few seconds. Neither one of them could believe what they had just heard. With blank, empty faces, Kyle was the first one to break the silence.

"OK...seriously, what the HELL are you talking about?"

"Huh?"

"Young boy...killing characters...this "object"...none of this is making any goddam sense..." Kyle was beginning to show a slight sign of frustration.

"I swear to you on my imaginary life that all of what I said is true to the core."

"Oh please...I bet you're not even an imaginary character." Kenny burst out – making the other guys look at him.

"You don't believe me..." The young boy spoke. "Very well...I guess I might as well show you..." He stood up, moved his chair back in and took his place in front of the table. Standing straight with his arms by his side, he took a deep breath and closed his eyes.

"Ummmm...OK..." Kenny spoke in a quiet voice obviously confused at what this kid was going to do.

Opening his eyes again, the young boy focused closely and straight with all his possible strength. And within a flash right next to him and behind him, attached to his back were two large angelic wings. Out straight and strong, the two wings arched away and upward, taking much more area to expand in the process. The young boy looked forward at the four guys again.

"Ummmm...WOW...ummm, you're a..."

"That's right, I'm an angel." The four guys looked at one another with startled expressions. "So...will you believe me now?" The four looked back at him again.

A few more minutes later, Stan, Kyle, Kenny & Butters found themselves hats, jackets, gloves and shoes back on outside and walking down the street behind the young boy whom was taking them to a specific location nearby.

"Thanks for taking the time to come and help us, we really appreciate it." The young boy spoke, his wings still out but this time not stretched out.

"Hey, we didn't say we'd help, we said we'd come along and check it out, that's all. Besides, we've got loads to do today anyway and we're kinda busy anyway." Kyle replied.

"Oh yeah, because watching a load of boring crap on TV is soooooo more important." Kenny rolled his eyes.

"Shut up Kenny."

"No I understand, I feel awful having to ask you four of such a task, but we feel like we've got no other choice. Besides, you are **Creators **after all."

"I wish he'd stop saying that." Kenny whispered under his breath.

Stan looked forward at the boy's pair of wings and sighed a little. "Hey dude, can you like...NOT show off those while we're out here please. People could start freaking out and stuff."

"Yeh...and if they saw US walking with you, we could get laughed at...like REALLY laughed at."

"Don't worry; we're not too far away now. We should be there soon."

"Where?"

"On a small and empty stretch of field, that's all. I need enough quiet and lonely space to open up a portal to Imaginationland."

Kenny took a sarcastic look around the area they were in. "HELLO! This whole area's covered in empty lonely fields..."

"I know...but we need to go a little further down here."

"Oh Christ..."

Eventually, a few more minutes up the road, the young boy had found his spot and stopped all of a sudden – walking onto the slush-covered field and looking around slightly to make sure that everything is OK.

"Finally..." Kenny rolled his eyes. "...is this it, then?"

"Yes...this spot is perfect..." He looked back at all four guys. "OK **Creators**...listen and listen well. I'm going to call out the exact words to which opens up a portal to Imaginationland. I want you to listen close, alright?"

"Yeh...alright, whatever." All four guys somewhat-nodded in acceptance and watched on as the young angelic boy spread his wings out once more and closed his eyes. Taking a deep breath and clearing his throat, he let out the very words that were needed.

"ImAAAAginAAAAtion...imaginAAAAAtiOOOOn..IIIImagIIInatiOOOOOn...imAAAAAginatiOOOOOn..."

"Oh God, not THIS again..." Kyle spoke – putting one hand across his face and covering his closed eyes.

After a few minutes of the song continuing on, the young boy finished singing and it was at that point that a portal had opened – appearing right in front of them as a liquid-like mixture of blue and white light. All four guys showed their amazement at such a thing with their eyes now wide open looking into it.

Stan was the first to take a step forward, but as soon as he got close to it, the young boy flicked his hand towards the portal and within a second, the portal disappeared again. "What the hell?"

"Alright...now you four sing the exact same words as I've just sung and the portal should appear."

"Dude...why did you just make it disappear!?"

"I want to make sure that all four of you know how to get back to our World for future times. After all, I doubt we will be needing you JUST this one time...you were listening to how I was exactly singing it, right?"

"Ummmmmm...well..." All four showed slight signs that they hadn't in one way or another. "...yeh...I mean, sure...of course we were." Butters finally answered for the four of them." And after a few more long minutes of all four of them arguing over which parts and which letters were different, higher, lower, changed etc. along with plenty of moaning and joking from Kenny, like usual, the four had successfully managed to repeat what the young angel had accomplished and opened a portal into Imaginationland.

"Alright...this is it..." The young boy moved forward so that he was in point blank range of the portal's surface. "...follow me."

"Woah...I ain't getting in no portal, fool..." Kenny shouted showing still his dissatisfaction in the idea. "...how do we know this'll take us there?"

"Trust me...it will, I promise. Besides, I am an imaginary character."

"He has a point, dude." Stan reminded him to which Kenny rolled his eyes, sighed and accepted what was in front of him.

"Alright then...let's go. Keep close to me..." And with that said, the young boy guided the four through the portal's light and liquid-like surface. It wasn't long before his black-imposed silhouette disappeared behind the blanket of light. Butters was next through, followed closely by Kenny.

"Make sure you're close behind me dude, I don't wanna disappear and stuff." Stan spoke, looking back at Kyle who was directly behind him.

"Don't worry Stan, I'm here – I got yer' back." Kyle responded ensuring Stan felt safe with Kyle behind him. And unaware to Stan, Kyle's protective and friendly state from that moment on would have its own personal and deeper reasons that only Kyle knew of truly and fully.

And as soon as Kyle's figure had disappeared, the portal vanished into thin air. Stan, Kyle, Kenny & Butters, four years later, were on their way back to Imaginationland.

-

**Author's Comments: Christ that was a long chapter. The only reason it was that long was that I wanted to get all this information in this chapter so that the story can lead from this specific point onwards. Anyway, next up is the four boys' first moments in Imaginationland for over four years.**


	3. Four Years Later

**Author's Notes: First steps into Imaginationland and the first moments of surprise and shock as well. This chapter won't be as long as the previous one...by a slight margin.**

**-**

**Four Years Later**

The other side of the portal ended up in an enclosed forest in which two grassy avenues were linked to it. The field they found themselves was in was fairly big, but not massive. The forest encircling them was very thick – trees of such dark brown colour and amazing deciduous beauty stood side by side in a circular formation which only broke formation to give way to the grass avenues. The avenues themselves would lead further into the land – guiding fellow characters and walkers to the nearby villages and regions of interest within this specific area of the land.

The young angel boy took a deep breath and closed his eyes for a few seconds. "Ah...home...how this air of purity and sounds of peace are about to be troubled..." He whispered to himself – looking around and balancing a smile and a frown on his face. For he knew what was about to happen, would be something that would test the very existence of not only this great realm, but also the survival, existence and even destiny of the four that stood behind him.

"Phew, thank God we managed to get through that one." Stan spoke. "Last time I went through a portal, we all know how well that went."

"Well good to hear you're alright." Kyle responded.

"Yeh...thanks for staying behind me back there." He smiled to which Kyle smiled back. If only Stan knew just how much a single smile from him meant to the red-haired Jew.

It was a secret that nobody else knew apart from Kyle himself. It was something so secret, so close, so personal and so emotionally amplified, that even the slightest sign of expressing it made Kyle tremble in fear of what negativity it could cause. The situation would get so bad that at times, Kyle would wish that he never did start having these feelings and thoughts in the first place. But like he already realised, nothing can stop what is destined to become real and true. And in Kyle's case, it was something that he had to stop from revealing at such an easy and early stage. And every day that passed, Kyle would always say the same thing and think the same words in his mind to himself – the very three simple words which summed up Kyle's physical and emotional problems for the past 4 years or so. _I love Stan, _those words always sent a warm buzz to his heart and a cold chill up to his head. _I have a crush...on Stan, _he would go on – further emphasising the problem he now faced with living with the reality that remained permanent in his mind and his soul.

Ever since the age of 10, Kyle saw Stan as more than just a best friend. Hell, a "Super Best Friend" didn't even come close to what Kyle saw them two as being. _There were loads of times that people could have picked on, _he realised over and over. And it was true, the amount of times Kyle showed a close feeling and attraction to Stan in more than just a friendly way was as clear as crystal. There were too many moments in the past four years for Kyle to remember, both because of the amount and because it was too shameful in his opinion, but he could recall every single one of them as if he kept a collection of them like records. _I'll never forget moments like that_, he thought, despite how embarrassing and pathetic he thought it was. He wasn't proud or comfortable with his own feelings, and in this case, sexuality, but like before, it was something he knew he couldn't change no matter how much he tried. _I guess I wasn't destined to like girls, after all, _he realised – further realising that the guy he would choose to be his hopeful lover, would be his best friend Stan Marsh.

Everytime he got near him, everytime Stan talked to him, everytime he talked to Stan back, everytime they stood together and did things together just the two of them, Kyle would get both a welcoming and fearful buzz of love and attraction towards Stan. Everything about him he believed was perfect; his grabable black hair, his sparkling blue eyes, his manly voice, his magnetising and caring attitude, even the way he walked...everything that made Stan Stan, made Kyle become the true Kyle even more._ If only he knew_, was the one thought that got Kyle down. Not only because he wanted to tell him, but also because he didn't know HOW to tell it. It was a secret that maybe shouldn't be told - an answer that maybe still had to remain in the shadows of the question.

But one thing was certainly sure in Kyle's mind. _One day, THAT one day someday...I'll tell him, _he would justify with every ounce of positivity in his body. _I'll tell him everything...and then...MAYBE...we can be happy..._the smile would never not rise. _...together._

"HEY...KYLE..." Kenny yelled – bringing Kyle's thoughts back to the present. "You just gunna stand there or what?!" He continued bringing to attention the fact that all except Kyle had begun walking down one of the grass avenues and were already quite a distance away from him. Running a bit and finally catching up, Kyle stopped right next to Stan's side and followed along with the rest in walking.

"So, where are we going?"

"I dunno, ask angel boy here."

"We're just heading to a nearby location first – it's not far from here."

"Yeh that's what you said back home in the fields." Kenny rolled his eyes again.

"Oh jeez...I hope this ole' nasty soar person gets what's coming to him. I sure don't like seeing characters...ummm...getting...y'know...killed off." Butters added – not that anybody was listening to him.

They continued on down the avenue – trees either side and the grass differing in length and shape in every part. At the end of each avenue would be the odd river, lake, stone-patch, hill, bridge, cave etc. Following on from that would be the extension of the avenue into multiple other avenues with signs posted by the sides to navigate characters through them to their requested location. A few more minutes onward, they had reached asplit in the road.

In front of them lay two signs – each one pointing in a different direction.

Left:**Moldwill Village**

**Province Border **:Right

"You see that..." The angel pointed towards the left sign. "That is the village that was attacked as told in my story." He then pointed down the avenue that led to the village. "It is still picking up the pieces from the attack. I would return there to offer my aid, but guiding you four to the location we must go, is of highest priority."

"So...what's this 'Province Border' then?" Kenny asked. "Where does that one go?"

"Come...this way..." The angel spoke –apparety nothearing Kenny's voice, but the four could tell that he had so. Following the angel nevertheless, the four found themselves walking down the other avenue towards this 'Border' region.

The angel then took out a map from underneath his clothes and spread it out for the four guys to see. "See...we are here..." The four took a peak over his shoulders. The map showed the birds-eye of a forest region dotted with several lakes and village regions along with plenty of open fields, mountains and in the far right corner of the map, a white line that signalled a border with some other region of land. But none of the four took notice of that particular element, it was the village that they were more focused on. "As you can see, one of the exit points of the village leads to an open field followed by arched hills and eventually, a set of mountains. It was here..." The angel sighed a little. "...that the young character I mentioned in my story – the one in possession of our precious "object"...was found dead by the side of one of the hills."

"Dead?! How!?"

"Gunshot to the leg and heart – he had no chance of survival."

"Oh jeez!" Butters cried out – letting out the most sympathy and emotion about the case out of all four of the guys.

"Well...what happened to the "object"? Did that boy you were also talking about, get it or sumin?"

The angel sighed deeper. "Yes, I'm afraid so...it has become an even worse situation than we feared. Now that he has that "object" in his possession, the crisis and indeed, the situation as a whole has deepened beyond anybody's imagination."

"Oh ha ha...yeh, nice one, with the whole 'anybody's imagination' thing...because we're in...Imaginationland...and it's full of..." There was brief silence from Kenny. "Oh Christ..." He rolled his eyes again.

A few more minutes up the avenue, they were beginning to come to another cross-point where the avenue they were on, broke off this time into three different avenues. The angel looked down at the map and double-checked that he was in the right location as **they** had told him to come to._ Let's hope this works_, he hoped in his mind. The idea that had been made, not only brought its risk, but also the fact that it would change certain aspects permanently...forever. _I hope they'll come to understand._

As they reached the centre of the next divide, the angel turned around, sighed a little and looked back at the four guys again. "OK, listen well. I'm going to head off for a few minutes to look for a certain character who'll brief you on what's happening at the moment and what we need you to do first off."

"Woah woah WOAH...hang on a minute..." Stan interrupted. "You're leaving us here?"

"Yes, I'm sorry that I have to leave you, but I won't be long."

"Won't be long? Yeh right..." Kenny brushed it off as if it meant nothing. "How do we know you'll be back – you could easily just leave us here."

"I assure you, my primary goal is to lead you to your first destination. My assignment isn't over until you fulfil the task of reaching it, I assure you." The four guys still looked a little unsure and uneasy, but were positive enough, for the time being, to go along with what the character promised. "Please...just trust me."

"Alright alright...keep your head on, we'll stick around here. Just don't be too long alright – some of us haven't eaten today at all, y'know." Kenny spoke – recalling that he had only had bread-on-bread and a glass of luke-warm water today.

"Don't worry, I won't be long." And with that said, the angel made his way down the left avenue and out of the guys' line of vision.

A few minutes passed and the guys decided to sit around a bunch of tree stumps nearby – right next to a bed of yellow flowers. At the moment, the four were discussing what this young boy looked like and what kind of so-called terrible and sinister plan he was coming up with, with this "object" that the angel had recalled several times.

"I bet it's a goth..." Kenny rolled his eyes. "...they're always planning some kind of painful thing...only this time maybe it's on a really giant ridiculous scale."

"Oh, come on Kenny, goths don't cause pain on others – they cause pathetic-minded vocal and physical pain on themselves, that's all." Kyle responded in his typical talk-back tone.

"Hey, I thought emos only did that kind of thing." Butters spoke in a soft voice.

"Shut up Butters!" All three shouted – causing Butters to curl back up to himself again.

"Well, whatever this dude's doing, we better just find him, tell him to quit it and get the hell out of here before our parents come home."

"Totally."

Unknown to the four, on the other side of the circular region connecting all four avenues, in the midst of the dark shadow-covered trees, they were being watched by a bunch of dirty-looking human-looking orcs.

"Well, what do we 'ave here?" The first orc spoke. "Looks like we got ourselves some **Creators **in this World of Imagination."

"Oh, **Creators **huh?" The second orc spoke in a much lower tone. "The very same as our Lord and Master?"

"THE very same." The first orc answered. "And these little meat-sacs are the very ones that our Lord ordered us to look for."

"Such a coincidence we should find them in this place..." The third orc entered. "...is everything set up?"

"Yes..." The first orc looked back. "...they should be moving towards IT in a matter of time. Once then, it will all be different."

The second orc laughed. "Who could imagine such pathetic little creatures as they could possess so much power."

"True..." The first orc focused his thoughts. "...power which our Lord will find VERY useful, indeed." With that said, the three orcs departed from their hiding spot and returned back into the depths of the forest.

Back at the stumps, all four guys had gone silent – locked in their own thoughts about different things; Stan about what this young boy was planning, Kenny about food, Butters about Goths and Emos...and Kyle about Stan and the ever-continuing feelings and thoughts he shared for the black-haired boy that sat exactly next to him.

Suddenly, as if from nowhere, a voice called to them. "Hey gaywads, what's going on?!" All four of them looked up almost instantly towards the direction the voice came from and were all immediately surprised at the person who now stood in front of them.

"Cartman?!" Kyle called – the most shocked of the four.

"Well, who did you expect dumb-ass..."

"What are you doing here, Cartman?" Stan asked in his usual tone.

"Huh? Well, I'm the one who should be asking that question...I was brought here by someone freak with wings."

This shocked all four even more. "You mean, that angel dude?"

"Yeh, why."

"Dude, we've just this minute been brought here by that guy. He's just left us here and he's been gone for 10 minutes now."

"Really..." Cartman spoke in what sounded like a surprised voice. "...well, he left me on my own too, so I thought I'd take a look around here and what do I expect, but you four fags sitting here like douches."

They spoke a little more for a few minutes – most of which was full of Cartman mocking what all four of them had to say about the situation. They eventually got to what the angel had told them about what had happened in the village.

"So...that character got chased and shot...and then he died."

"Yeh..."

There was brief moment of silence which was soon broken by Cartman bursting out with laughter. "Man...that character got owned!"

"This isn't funny Cartman..." Kyle spoke, now annoyed at Cartman's ignorance.

"Dude, it's TOTALLY funny – a character getting killed and shot. Guys, that's not tragic, that's genius."

"Oh, get the hell out of here Cartman if you're gunna be here. We're here for the same reasons so we'll see yer' at wherever we're supposed to be going."

"Alright, whatever you say." Cartman walked off – still giving off little laughs under his breath.

"Dude, what's his problem?" Stan asked.  
"I dunno Stan, I really don't."

"Fellas...HEY, FELLAS!" Butters called to the other three – running back towards them.

"What is it Butters?"

"I've found something, I've found something!"

"Found what?!"

"...something...strange and wierd and stuff."

Butters began to lead the other three to the location he had found what he was looking for again. It was a little up one of the separate avenues and wasn't far from where they were.

"How did you find what we're going to see."

"Oh well, I saw a little flashing thing when we were sat chatting with Cartman...and I...y'know...decided to follow it."

"A flashing thing?"

"Yeh, it sorta was...y'know...kinda close to us and as I followed it, it got further and further away. I kept following it and then it just disappeared all of a sudden. The next minute...I find these." Butters then turned their attention to the thing, or in this case, things that he found on the ground. There across the avenue of grass was a little black box made of metal. "What do you think it is?"

"I dunno, but I wouldn't go near it."

Suddenly, Kenny spotted more. "Look, over there!" He pointed to three identical-looking black metal boxes. The stranger thing was that all four boxes were aligned as if in a square formation spread across the width of the grass avenue. The four guys walked over to the furthest metal box from them and had a quick look. "Yep, they're all the same."

"But...still, what do you think they are."

"Oh jeez, you think they could be like, little black metal monsters or sumin?" The other three quickly looked at Butters and gave him odd looks. "Well, I think they look like little black metal monsters...I hate little black metal monsters."

Suddenly, as if out of nowhere, the four square-formed, square-shaped metal boxes sprung to life – releasing two poles from either side which connected to one another, and one larger frame-like pole which went up and above the four guys' heads. "What the hell are they doing?" The poles soon expanded and expanded until from each side, the four guys were boxed in by a wall of spiked metal poles and bars and above them, was a roof of spread-out metal frames and sheets which arched down and had little shiny tips on the underside of each part. "Ummmm...guys." Kenny spoke in a slight worried sound.

But unfortunately, before any of them could think any further, the metal sealed shut and locked them inside it. And it wasn't long before a buzzing sound was heard. And from the boxes, through the poles, up the frames and through the small tips overhead, massive charges of electricity were shot out around each side and from out of the tips which in result, landed right across the enclosed grass and...unfortunately, through the bodies of all four guys. Stan, Kyle, Kenny and Butters all let out massive screams of pain as the 20,000 Volt stream of electricity flowed through their bodies and struck at every muscle and nerve in their body like static knives. They tried to move and through blind instinct, get out of the way, but it made no difference. The electricity and lightning bolts were rushing through every part and were covering every blade of grass in the enclosed square that was being blocked with streams of electrified poles.

The seconds felt like minutes as the pain ensued. The force was so strong that it ripped and tore holes through their clothes and eventually, burned them to a crisp. Their jackets soon turned to thin crispy fragments and their hats being shocked to pieces from all the bolts. In fact, pretty much all of their clothes were getting damaged and destroyed one way or another.

Finally after what seemed and painfully felt like a long while, the electricity bolts and lightning strikes ceased and there was silence again. Kenny, Butters and Stan collapsed and passed out almost instantly. But Kyle still had some energy left in his arms. With the rest of his body now paralyzed from all the electricity and the strikes, he dragged his way across the burned grass to where Stan was laying with his body facing up towards the sky. Kyle felt the energy in his arms depleting greatly and was using every ounce of it in order to get close to Stan. He had just got to where Stan's feet were and was making his way towards his side with his eyelids now feeling like lead weights. He tried to lift his left hand up a few inches to grab hold of Stan's hand. But as he hovered closely to Stan's dry palm, the energy in his own hand failed him – disappearing and drained completely, and the rest of his body collapsed onto the ground – his head angled to the left towards an unconscious Stan. And it wasn't long before Kyle's breathing stopped too and his eyes closed shut too.

A few minutes passed and there was still silence as the four guys lay unconscious and not moving. But just then, nine individual shadows cast their presence over the four bodies that lay on the grass. It wasn't long before the true forms of those nine shadows came into the light and surrounded all four guys. Looking down at them, they looked at one another and begun talking.

"So...these are the ones that will lead the destiny of this great land?" One character spoke.

"It would seem so...they don't look like heroes to me – they looknothing more than justa bunch of kids." Another spoke.

"Oh, don't judge a book by its cover, that's what they always say – I know that more than anybody and you all should too. The people of their World know that phrase all too well as far as I'm concerned." Another spoke – looking towards the black metal boxes. "Looks like my old stun devices worked – hope I didn't cook them...much."

"I'm sure they'll be fine." Another spoke – kneeling down and looking specifically at Stan and Kyle. "These two...these are the ones we must take extra care of."

"I presume they are THE ones, correct?" Another spoke.

"Yes...they're the ones the Council spoke of." Another spoke.

"They will be alright, won't they. They are **Creators** after all." Another spoke.

"**BEEP-BLIP. TICK-TICK RING BEEEEEP, TICK-RING RIIIING BEEP!**" Another character spoke.

"I agree, we won't find out anything just standing here. Let's get them back to our Province and begin what we need to do." The final character spoke to which a few of the characters picked up and helped carry the four guys – one over their shoulders and took them close to where their pegasi were stood in the shadows of the forest. With all nine characters on their pegasi – two to each horse with the only female character leading and with all of them keeping tight hold of one boy each, they set off and made their way back to the destination they had come from – lifting off from the air and disappearing from ground view within a matter of moments.

Stan, Kyle, Kenny & Butters were on their way to their next destination. But a new destination was the least newest thing that was waiting for them – especially...for Stan and Kyle.

-

**Author's Comments: Sooooo, with all four boys knocked out and unconscious, where on Imaginationland could they be heading?! And before anyone tells me, yes I know that amount of electricity could quite possibly kill a little kid, but hey, just think of it as special imaginary electricity, OK? And yes, I will be revealing the identity of all nine characters in the next chapter just in case you hadn't figured it out in the Intro. And now, I can safely say that the TRUE story starts right here, right now!**


	4. So It Begins

**Author's Notes: Enter the identities of the nine 'Legends of Imagination' and with it, the beginning of the true details behind what is going on in Imaginationland. Now just to let you know, this first bit is kinda confusing but bare with me – I don't want to give away too much at this present moment, but you'll find out soon enough what's going on.**

**So It Begins**

"_**Silent child – unborn youth that dwells in the cloud of normality between existences, let the flower of destiny begin to blossom within you. Receive upon you the fate that one day you will soon understand. Like a flowing river, the energy trickles downstream from the Gods through the channel they have left for our realm...to you. Receive this destiny......O innocent youth."**_

He couldn't quite tell or even come close to understanding the feeling he was getting just now. Time had become nothing more than a hazy element that was passing by at some un-noticeable speed. Comfort soon turned to rest. Rest soon turned to cloudiness. Cloudiness soon turned to warmth and that in which, lasted the longest, and gave way to something else – something considerably greater through the fact that it was a completely different feeling all together. The warmth was all around him – warmth which covered his eyes in soft clouds, shrouded his ears in ambient isolation, pressed his lips with unidentifiable wetness and completely surrounded his entire naked body in what felt like a surge of something quite spectacular. The warm, bubbling liquid that shrouded his entire body continued to surge upward and at times, to the sides, with even more of this unusual feeling that he had never experienced before.

He remained asleep – eyes remaining to keep closed rather softly and gently, as he stayed floating in this surrounding liquid he was in. Suddenly, as if from nowhere, the very smallest sensory fragment of both his body and soul started to feel something. All around him, his hands, his feet, his back, his chest, there was an almighty press that started with a prick of sorts – a tiny shock of something pointed that soon died down into a soft penetration of soothing warmth. Finally, the warmth gave way to a climatic-like flow of something that was felt trickling through every corner of the surrounding and going in the same direction, towards the centre. And it was at this centre, that he was present, and in result, where the trickling made its way into. A little more soothing and surrounding warmth to ease the naked body and at last, the trickling had completely disappeared into its destined vessel that was his body. After that, the surroundings soon turned light and dreamy again.

-

**Earth Day June 3****rd**** 2012 (Leap Year Day 155) – Imaginationland Year 2072XV.4**

The morning rays soon began to warm up his eyelids to the point that they were annoying him. Still tired and exhausted, Kyle slowly let them rise and give way to the views of his present surrounding. It took him another minute to let his eyes get accustomed properly to the morning rays that were coming through seemingly through an open window. Lifting his head off a surprisingly comfortable set of pillows, Kyle began to get into a seated position and looked down. He bellowed out a yawn and stretched out his arms – giving even more presence to the new situation he found himself in. His arms stretched with energy again, he took notice of the garment he was wearing on the top half of his body. A soft, cotton-like pyjama top covered his entire chest, back and arms all the way to his wrists. The patterns on the top were, quite artistic, to say the least. The arms and the chest area especially (that Kyle was looking at upside down from his viewpoint) were coated in symbolic and artistically skilled images that you would only see on the holiest of objects. The pyjama shirt was light red in colour – the buttons going down the middle and a few of the decorative lines showing a slight hint of pink too. _What the?! _Kyle realised that it was enough to start questioning the situation he was in. He pulled back the right side of the soft bed sheets with his hand and looked down to see, just like the top half, that the bottom half of his body was wearing just-as-identical clothing to what was present on him on top. The pyjama bottoms which accompanied his buttoned shirt were just as red-and-pink coloured and symbolic as its shirt counterpart – hence, making Kyle look like some kind of night-time decorative element of symbolic art._ At least I'm wearing something over my crotch, _he thanked gladly – realising just how embarrassing he thought it was to wear nothing below when in bed, for more reasons than one.

Finally, he got himself out of bed and leaned his feet onto the slightly cool stone flooring. His bare feet, at first, felt as if they hadn't touched solid ground for some time. Nevertheless, Kyle managed to find the energy to walk over to the near window to the right of the bed. Leaning on the marble arch, the sunlight surprised his still weak eyes and Kyle took a slight step back to give his eyes time to get accustomed to the morning light. He moved to the window again and leaned across – gazing out of the window and downwards.

A shot of air and a ray of sunshine gave way to the sight of a gigantic city. Just in front were towers and buildings so big that they nearly blocked his entire view. The buildings, decorated in beautiful architectural designs, lay near surrounding gardens, fountains, courtyards and patched avenues of many different levels and block regions. Beyond the great buildings was the main city – a landscape-sized stretch of old-fashioned stone buildings – big, small, wide, thin, beautiful, not-so-beautiful and cobbled streets which were the size of needles from this distance covered the entire region of Kyle's current view. Wherever he was, Kyle was certainly impressed by its artistic and architectural beauty – a subject of whom, over the past four years, he had surprisingly got a lot more interested in (and this coming from someone who once hated art with a passion). The city and indeed the surrounding region sounded reasonably busy – the hustle-and-bustle of people noise and in some places, animal cries, filled the air with joyful sound.

His eyes suddenly shot to life all of a sudden. "Stan!" Spinning around forcefully, he shot towards the door which was at the rear of the room to the far left corner. The door was coated in symbolic art and beauty – striking similarities with that all across Kyle's pyjamas. He tried the door, it wouldn't budge. _What the..._, a confused Kyle thought to himself – trying the door again, but still no budge or even slight moment. _...DAM! Must be locked from the outside. _Worrying unsurprisingly over the safety and possible condition of Stan, Kyle let out a gentle sigh and walked back over to the bed knowing that fear couldn't and shouldn't get the better of him at this present moment. He took a seat at the right edge of the bed – looking back towards the bed with his head leaning on one hand. Again, all Kyle could think about were the two burning questions that had embedded themselves within his brain; _First of all, where the hell am I? And second......is Stan OK?!_

A peaceful quiet minute passed. Suddenly, like an object to a sheet of glass, the sound of the door opening behind him shattered the muted silence around him. However, Kyle didn't turn his body or even his head towards it yet. True, he was aware and the expression on his face was of slight shock but pure focus.

"Ah, I'm glad to see you're awake." A young girl's voice spoke. Kyle said nothing, yet his eyes were starting to move towards the left of their sockets. "You've been asleep for quite a while. It's good to see you finally up." The voice was kind – young, gentle but with a slight commanding tone to it. Still, the voice came from a girl who sounded as if she couldn't be any older than 16 or 17 – a couple of years older than Kyle. "Well, aren't you going to say anything..." She let out a soft laugh. "...oh, maybe what happened to you still has got you quite exhausted, even after all that time." Kyle braced himself and slowly rotated his head and then his body around the edge of the bed – following the painted and decorated walls around in an angle until, finally, he had turned the full 180 degrees and the young girl that had spoken to him was right in sight smiling at him. "Good morning..." It didn't take Kyle long to get an urge that he had seen this person before somewhere and more importantly, somehow. That young attractive face, that long fair pinkish auburn hair, those royal-like clothes and more importantly, the insignia that bear boldly on her clothing.

Suddenly, the penny dropped – multiple images and recalled moments in Kyle's free time over the years flashed before him. With shock pulsing through his expressions, he fell off the bed and scrambled over to the wall behind him as if he were scared. "No...NO! You can't be HER!"

"What do you mean?" The young girl asked – confused slightly. "Is something wrong?" She took a step forward towards Kyle whom was sat cowardly on the floor against the wall.

"STOP...don't come any closer." Kyle called in a somewhat scared tone. _How could this be? _along with similar questions ran through his head while he tried to figure out how this was all possible. But yet again, like all possible questions are answered, he WAS in Imaginationland and quite possibly anything and everything could become alive in this realm. Realising, he looked up again at the girl and spoke, "So it's true then...you're......you're..."

"Oh..." The girl realised – thinking Kyle was asking who she was. "...how rude of me..." She smiled – walking over to him and helping up a still shocked Kyle. "My name is...Juliet Capulet."

The penny dropped for a second time in Kyle's head and seemed to hit even harder this time round – the name bringing back the entire identification of this first known imaginary character: _**Literature, William Shakespeare's, 'Romeo & Juliet', Juliet Capulet**_. Shooting forward still in shock and against the girl's calls back, Kyle ran out of the room and into a long-stretched corridor coated in royal decoration and artistic beauty. _How do I get out of here?! _the thoughts rushed through his head as he sprinted down the multiple corridors of equally split blue and red carpet and artistic decoration. Taking a corner in sheer shock, he tripped on the first step of a staircase – leading down into a thinner channel. A few dozen steps later, Kyle landed head-first on the floor of quite small room on the floor below. Moaning a little and trying to get his body moving a little, he opened his eyes to the sight of 50 steps up in his vision. _Goddam it!_

"Kyle?" A voice called from behind him.

"Wha...whozat?" Kyle asked – feeling someone help pick him up and stand him up once more. "Jesus Christ dude, you must have got totalled on that staircase." Kyle focused his eyes again on the person stood in front of him and received yet another shock, but this time, it was a delightful shock.

"STAN!" He grabbed hold of him and gave him a huge hug. "Oh, thank God you're OK." Looking down and placing his hands surprisingly deep into Stan's back.

"Ummmmm, yeh...I am dude." Stan replied in a confused tone. "Ummmmm...dude..."

"Oh jeez...sorry Stan..." Kyle let go and moved back embrassingly – looking down at the floor and slowly moving his vision back up to Stan's face but not without realising that like himself, Stan was wearing pyjamas too – pyjamas which also had very similar symbolic imagery and architectural-like patterns on them. Only this time, Stan's pyjamas were blue, not red. "Dude...what IS all that?" Kyle pointed to his chest region where the majority of the symbolic imagery was.

"Oh THAT...I dunno dude, what do you think?"

"Beats me...I just woke up here in this strange place with them on."

"DUDE...you woke up wearing them as well? That's what I've done just now!"

"Really...so you must have got woken up by that girl, right?"

"WHAT...you know?! How?"

"He told me."

"He?"

"Ah, Sir Stan, I see you've found your friend." A voice spoke from across the room.

"Well no actually...he found me...Romeo."

"...ROMEO?" That similar flash-back of multiple identifications came back to Kyle: _**Literature, William Shakespeare's, Romeo & Juliet, Romeo Montague**_.

"...Yeh, I did get that name right, didn't I dude? RO..ME..O?"

"So...you're...you're Romeo?" Kyle asked – looking forward again at the character whom was now in front of them.

"That is correct – Romeo Candorebanto Montague." The boy responded – dressed in similar-fashioned royal clothes striking fair blue hair and a young face too. Looking towards Kyle, the boy looked slightly confused. "Is he alright, sir?"

"Ummmmm yeh, I think so."

"Owwwww...my head." Kyle moaned – feeling an awful bruising pinching at the back of his head. Stan put one arm around him and guided him over to a nearby chair by the side of the room. Sitting down, Kyle was looking towards a great set of double doors marked with the two insignias of the two houses. _There's no fucking doubt about it now, _he realised.

"Is he OK?" Stan asked – looking over.

"I don't know..." Romeo responded – walking over to where Stan was. "What happened here?"

"Beats me...one minute I'm on the side of the room looking out of the window, the next minute I hear a big thud on the floor next to the staircase and there's Kyle lying on the ground in a giant mess."

"Oh dear, you might be hurt, sir..." Romeo exclaimed showing a slight sign of worry over Kyle's condition.

"Sir Kyle? Sir Kyle?!" Juliet shouted – running down the stairs and into the room. _Great, now I'm being called 'sir' too, _Kyle smiled still in a slightly dizzy and hurt way.

"Juliet!"

"Romeo?!" Juliet responded – soon spotting Stan and Kyle too and rushing over to the seated Kyle. "Oh no, what happened?"

"Kyle fell down the stairs and totally got his head messed up, that's what happened." Stan replied – watching as Juliet moved behind Kyle and lifted up a bit of his red hair to inspect the bruise.

"Uhhhhhhhh..." Kyle continued to mutter as he felt Juliet move bush after bush of his fro in search for any kind of bruise or cut. "OWWWWW!" He cried again.

"Oh...thank goodness..." She called. "It's just a slight scar, you'll be fine."

"What...oh...thank God..." Kyle spoke – standing back up and beginning to rub the back of his head.

"Well then...I think it's time...let's go..."

"Woah woah woah!" Kyle halted all three of them whom were making their way towards the set of giant double doors at the end of the room. "What do you mean 'let's go'? Is anybody gunna explain to me what the hell's going on?"

Romeo and Juliet both looked at one another and looked a little puzzled to say the least. Stan understood Kyle's confused and slightly annoyed tone and simply put his hand on his shoulder. "Dude...don't worry, I'm just as clueless as you, OK? All they've told ME, is to just follow these two around the place, starting with this massive room."

"Stan..."

"Dude...don't worry, I'm here."

Kyle smiled. "Yeh...that's right." It brought warmth to his heart and with that said, Kyle finally decided to follow. The four made their way down the corridor and through the giant doors to the sound of a massive opening call.

Inside, the room was dark – lit only by a ray of light shining through a glass window. "Well well...look who finally got out of bed?" A voice called from the side of the room.

"Huh?" Kyle called in confusion again.

"Ah, Kenny...you're THERE." Stan called – causing Kyle to get even more surprised.

"Kenny?! What the hell?!"

"Nice get-up you got there, Kyle..." Kenny winked – laughing a little in the dim light of the room.

"Oh jeez Kyle, that sure is one good-looking set of PJs you got there."

"Butters?"

"That's me. All four of us back together again."

"Oh Christ!" Kenny rolled his eyes.

"AND NOW..." Juliet called from the centre of the room in the lightest part alongside Romeo. "...let us introduce ourselves to the four **Creators **of the Real World."

"Fellow 'Legends Of The Imagination'..." Romeo called. "...reveal yourselves to them..."

Suddenly, all four of the guys heard footsteps of different sizes and types moving forward out of the darkness and into the light. All four kept their focus forward on who would reveal themselves in the room. Romeo and Juliet, standing in the centre began to reveal the other characters.

"First..." Juliet began. "...dwelling from the Game Province land of Hyrule......the Hero of Time - **Link**." And out of the shadows first, wearing his well-known green tunic and carrying the usual Hylian Shield and Master Sword on his back.

"Honor to meet you, O great **Creators**."

"Holy shit, he talks." Kenny exclaimed – showing as much surprise as Stan, the game fanatic of the four, did too.

"Secondly..." Romeo continued. "...brought forth from the most harshest and extreme of environments. The legendary mercenary – **Solid Snake**." Stan gasped a little at the immediate sound of such a name.

"You kept me waiting, kids – I hate this little wait-in-the-shadow game of yours." Snake voiced directly at the four of them.

"Thirdly before you all..." Juliet brought their attention back. "...the greatest of all Game characters – the legend OF legends from the great Province. From the land of Flatworld – **Mr. Game & Watch**.

"**TICK-RING BEEP BEEP RING TICK**!" The 2D black sprite character called as if he were trying to speak. The four were even more confused now into what he was trying to call or say to them.

"Ummmmm...you're...welcome?" Kyle tried to respond back.

"Fourth from the shadows......controller of the TARDIS and last of the Time-Lords – **The Doctor**."

"Ah...so you're the little plucky foursome from the real World. Nice to meet 'ya, I'm The Doctor." The smartly dressed human-like character spoke with a smile and a wink.

"WOAH..." Kyle spoke with glee, whispering a silent 'WOW'under his voice.

"Fifth into the light......the boy wizard – **Harry Potter**."

"Oh God..." Kenny rolled his eyes.

"OH BOY...he's my favourite character..." Butters smiled this time at the delight of seeing HIS favourite character in the room.

"Hi there...guess you all know who I am, right?" The boy wizard stepped out of the light.

"HA, at least he still isn't older than US in this World." Kenny sniggered – pointing attention to the fact that he was still in his 13/14 year old state here.

"Sixth......a character from sacred imagination. The winged youth – **Icarus The Angel**."

"Who?" Kenny spoke with raised eyebrows – making Kyle give him a 'Are you kidding me' sort of look.

"Seventh...and the final member to come out of the shadows. The legendary Saiyan himself – **Goku**."

"WOAH..." Kenny, this time spoke in shocked delight.

"So...you're the ones that I've heard many stories about?"

"Oh my God...that's like super Awesome right there..." Kenny spoke, smiling still.

"OH, it's OK for you to make fun of the characters WE like, but when it comes to your favourite, it's all awesome..." Kyle rolled his eyes.

"And of course..." Juliet began to close with the final words. "...lastly there is us two...members of the Houses of Montague & Capulet and now Grand Rulers of this fair kingdom of Neo Verona – **Romeo**...and I, **Juliet**."

So there it was. All nine characters of the entitled group 'The Legends of Imagination' had been revealed. And as they all stood side by side in front of them, the four boys took a minute to let it all sink in. All nine – Link, Snake, Mr. Game & Watch, The Doctor, Harry Potter, Icarus, Goku, Romeo & Juliet – there they were, from all three main provinces of Imaginationland ready to help the four of them in whatever was needed from them. But the question still remained – WHAT exactly did they need them for and what were they doing here in the first place. With that said, the nine gathered all four of them around a giant table and a long and complex detailing of what had happened during these past four (Earth) years, had begun.

-

Hundreds of miles away on what seemed like an empty avenue of trees and grass, a young individual was walking down in deep focus and with little emotion on his face. He began to see something – sensing something else thereafter above him. _Hmmm?! _The sense became stronger and a visual image morphed itself into the image of what looked like an army of monsters heading towards him. Focusing himself again, he jumped forcefully off the ground and into the shadowed branches of the tall trees beside him – spying down on the army that at present, was now passing him below. "So..." He spoke silently to himself. "...they move onward to their target." The sound of something above him made him look up. There flying through the sky was the second half of the army – a group of different imaginary characters altogether. "...them too, huh? Looks like he's not letting anything go so easily." He looked back in the distance he had previously been walking away from. "The time for the great **Creators **to see what has become of this land, has begun..." And within a flash, the character had disappeared into the shadows.

-

Back in the grand meeting room in the castle on top of Neo Verona, the legendary nine had just finished explaining everything that had happened up until this point and also the major situation that they were all facing.

"So you see..." The Doctor continued on. "...he's trying to hunt you four down..."

"But why? Why us?!" Stan asked – like the other three, sat close to one another against the evenly spread nine, still wearing pyjamas from before.

"Because..." Goku explained. "...you hold something that only HE is looking for. We don't know what it is, but it's something we MUSTN'T let slip into his hands."

"And to think...we almost let it slip thanks to that dam trap those orc monstrosities set up back in that forest." Snake responded to which all four boys showed signs of shock. They began to remember that point – surrounded by barriers, electricity appearing, getting electrocuted like crazy and then passing out into darkness.

"You mean...that thing...was set up by orcs?"

"That's correct..." Link answered. "Orcs...from the EVIL side of Imaginationland."

Kyle among anybody else was even more confused at orcs being the answer to that trap. The nine explained further how the entire evil side of Imaginationland had broken free once more from their half and were already causing major destruction and terror across all Provinces of the good side of Imaginationland. Not only this, but all this evil had one major motive – the discovery and tracking down of the four **Creators **that had apparently entered into the realm of Imagination. All of which was controlled by HIM – the fifth **Creator **who had also come to Imaginationland but for much different and far evil reasons.

"Fellow **Creators**..." Romeo stood up. "...please, aid us your strength and your courage and help us fight off these evil characters and win justice over the evil one that rules over them all..." The nine all turned to the four boys who were all both puzzled and startled to say the least.

"Ummmm...look..." Kyle began. "...we're just kids...14 year old kids......we're no soldiers or warriors or anything like that...we're just...KIDS!"

"We realise that Sir Kyle..." Juliet quickly responded. "...but you ARE creators – you have far more power than all of us combined. Please...we beg of you, aid us in this desperate hour..."

"Oh please...this is ridiculous..." Kenny rolled his eyes.

"Ridiculous, huh?" Snake called. "I wouldn't expect anything less from a useless little kid like you..."

"What did you say?" Kenny showed a little annoyance.

"You call yourself a **Creator**..."

"Well...no I didn't...you have all this dam time..."

"Shut up..." Snake barked back. "...you're just as much in this fight as we are. Don't forget, all the evil characters in this land are ruled over by a **Creator **just like you. That individual has enough power in him to break the barriers between reality and imagination. Now why don't you SHUT UP and just imagine if all the greatest evil imaginations broke free from this realm and escaped into YOUR World. The realm you call the Real World would fall under the very evil that YOU thought up."

"Jesus Christ..." Stan realised.

"Oh jeez..." Butters followed soon to which Kenny frowned and silenced himself with that fact that he soon realised too.

"So then..." Kyle asked back. "...what do you expect us to do?"

"Well first off..." Juliet stood up smiling. "First...we better get you out of those night clothes..." To which Kenny looked down and sighed at the fact that he realised that all four of them were still wearing those ridiculous pyjamas. "Romeo..."

"Right...your four...follow us this way..." Romeo continued, interrupted dramatically by a rumbling from below.

"What was that?" Harry Potter asked.

"Sounded like a quake of some sort." Goku added. The Doctor, Icarus, Link, Romeo, Juliet and the four boys ran towards the large glass windows and looked out. What they saw were great destructive blasts and roaring flames appearing from the depths of Neo Verona's city region.

"What the hell's going on?" Stan cried.

"Looks like some kind of battle's taking place." The Doctor quickly responded – leaning his hands and face close against the glass. "...and a big one, for that matter."

"Oh hamburgers, we're gunna die."

"Don't be stupid Butters, we're not gunna die." Kyle replied.

"HEH...LOOK OUT!" Juliet yelled to which the imaginary characters dived down and pulled the boys down with them as a dozen sharp flaming arrows came crashing through the glass and onto the carpeted floor.

"STAY DOWN!" Snake yelled – whipping out his armed SOCOM from his gun-holder and aiming out at the beings that were now in front of him outside. There in the open air were a group of orcs riding atop flying beasts screeching with their high-pitch cries of terror. Without hesitation, Snake opened fire on the creatures – knocking down all five of them in one go and in result, sending the orcs too down to their deathly peril below. "We gotta get these kids out of here, NOW!"

"I agree...we'll have to fend them off until we get all four away from this place." Link responded looking immediately at the controllers of the castle, Romeo & Juliet.

"OK...Mr. Game & Watch!" Romeo called.

"**BEEP**" The 2D character nodded in a bit-rate frame.

"Let's go...carry the others and follow us behind." Juliet added – grabbing Kyle's hand just as Romeo did with Stan's as the two lead them out in a rushing manner out of the room. Following close behind, Mr. Game & Watch grabbed both Kenny and Butters and held them both above his head in his round flat black hands and kept close behind Romeo & Juliet as the three of them made their way to another room to get the four boys out of their night clothes and into a new set of clothes.

Meanwhile, the other characters watched onward – fending off countless other orcs and creatures that tried to make their way inwards. Suddenly, just as another orc was hit by one of Link's arrows and another by Snake's bullet, a large beam of energy came shooting down from above towards the ceiling – sending a bit of debris to crash down.

"What was THAT?" Potter gasped as the others showed the same question in their expressions. The Doctor took a look upwards towards the sky – focusing his eyes and soon seeing a formation of floating cylinder-like objects coming towards the castle region.

"OH NO..." He soon exclaimed. "It's THEM..." His face soon turned from fear to feared anger.

"Who...who's THEM?" Icarus asked.

"They NEVER give up...they ALWAYS survive while I continue to suffer..." The Doctor continued.

"DOCTOR...who is it?!" Snake shouted grabbing hold of The Doctor's arm.

The Doctor simply continued to look up, git his teeth slightly and finally gave an answer. "DALEKS!" To which the other characters looked up too.

There, high in the sky, an army of flying Daleks were making their way across the city region of Neo Verona and towards the castle. At the front of the packed group, the leader Dalek called its computerised voice and shouted so that the entire army behind could hear him.

"FIND THE CRE-A-TORS!! DE-STROY ALL IN YOUR WAY! ANY STRENGTH OF NINE CHA-RAC-TER FOUND WILL BE EX-TER-MI-NATED!!!"

And so, the first of many great battles, had begun. Battleground 1 – Neo Verona.

**-**

**Author's Comments: I know this is a South Park fic, but this is Imaginationland after all – you just have to have multiple cameo cross-over character battles now and again, right? Hope the nine characters revealed will satisfy some people at least – there'll be even more cameos revealed later on and like the two revealed now, plenty of other evil characters too. Next up...first battle between good and evil characters and further truth revealed about the current situation.**


	5. Attack on Neo Verona

**Author's Notes: Prepare yourself for plenty of cross-overs between characters both on the good side and on the evil side too. Plus, you get to learn a little more about the situation at hand.**

**Attack on Neo Verona**

Within a flash, Stan and Kyle found themselves undressed wearing little more than a brand new pair of cotton shorts each that both Romeo and Juliet had given to them. As Mr. Game & Watch kept eye on both the door and the nearby windows, the other two characters helped rush the two boys quickly into their new clothes.

"What's happening out there?" Kyle asked – hearing the repeating crashes of rubble in the outside distance.

"I don't know...but we mustn't waste a second here finding out." Juliet responded – throwing a red and white shirt over Kyle's head and thrusting his arms through the sleeves. "How could they have already known our location this quickly..." She looked down. "...HE must have already tracked you boys down."

"Who's this HE?" Stan muffled as he made his way through his own blue and white shirt. "And why are WE so important here, what's going on?"

"Boys, we must get you out of here AT ONCE – your safety is of upmost importance." Romeo ensured – throwing both boys their trousers – denim-like brown pants made of a smooth-like material and elegant texture.

"**TICK...BEEP-BEEP!!**" Mr. Game & Watch cried out behind the four causing both Romeo and Juliet to grab a boy and shot down to the ground just as a double pair of flaming arrows came whistling into the room – smashing the glass and causing a slight crack to the stone wall. "**BEEP-RING...RING! BEEP TICK BEEP-BEEP RING! RING!!**"

"OK, cover us Mr. Game & Watch!" Romeo responded to which the 2D black character pulled out a gas canister and started puffing out flat black gas out of it from out the windows – defending the room and keeping any nearby orcs and their beasts away.

With Stan and Kyle finally dressed – head to toe in a completely new style of clothing, Romeo and Juliet guided them out of the room followed shortly by a defensive-stanced Mr. Game & Watch. Outside, Kenny and Butters along with a just-as-defensive Link were waiting and soon joined the party in escaping from the situation. It wasn't long before parts of the corridors were already starting to shake and crumbling stone started to fly down.

"Jesus Christ, what are they trying to do?" Kyle shouted.

"OK, that's IT!" Stan yelled – breaking away from the group.

"Stan, where are you going?"

"I've had enough of this – first I was dragged into this place and now I'm on the verge of getting killed, I'm getting out of this place one way or another." Stan began to run down the darkened corridor.

"STAN!" Kyle called but Stan easily ignored him.

"NO, I can't let this happen." Juliet shouted – rushing out also in order to catch up to Stan.

"HEY, WAIT UP..." Kyle tried to follow suit but was pulled back by Kenny.

"Woah dude, we can't lose you here also, God knows where Stan's going."

"But he might need me...er I mean, he might need US."

"He sure is right...y'know..." Butters answered. "I don't think that girl can take on all those nasty orcs and keep Stan safe."

"She'll BE fine...and so will HE..." Romeo bellowed out. "Come on...LET'S MOVE!" And with that, the six remaining continued on down the corridors.

Back outside, the other imaginary characters, The Doctor, Harry Potter, Snake, Icarus & Goku were attempting to fight off the combined strength of both the army of orcs and army of Daleks. The two evil forces had pushed the five back into a garden region where they being surrounded and attacked from both the ground and the air.

"Hey, I can't hold out much back here..." The Doctor shouted. "I'm a TimeLord, not a soldier."

"Well don't just stand there, shoot!" Snake yelled back – firing two guns of his own towards surrounding orcs.

"How the heck can I kill these things with what I'VE got, I told you I'm no soldier."

"I SAID...SHOOT!" Snake tossed a SOCOM towards The Doctor. "Here, use THIS!"

"Great, now I'm a gun-wielder...ah well." He rolled his eyes – taking aim and fending off other orcs.

Meanwhile, in the air, Goku and Icarus were fending off the surrounding Daleks with Harry Potter's help. "EX-TER-MI-NATE!" The army around them chanted continuously – firing laser beams at Potter's magic-induced shield around the two flying characters.

After a few more minutes, the garden around them had quickly turned into a complete mess around many destructions and explosions of weaponry – both physical and energy-based. The five characters moved back towards another – covering each other's side in a circular formation.

"DAM, we're surrounded." Snake cursed – reloading his two 9mm and aiming them immediately at the increasing size of the orc army around them. Goku and Harry Potter powered up their powers where Icarus and The Doctor found themselves in unfamiliar territory.

Suddenly, out of a brief silence between the two sides, a voice screamed out in the distance. "GET ME OUT OF HERE, I'VE HAD ENOUGH!" The five looked over just as the two armies did and were shocked to see the sight of Stan running across a nearby walkway away from the structure he had just ran out of. Fearing the inevitable, Goku was the first to look up and realise the Daleks had set their sight on the newly appearing Stan.

"NO!" Jumping up again and teleporting away to stop them.

Back on the walkway, Stan stopped out of breath and looked up to the clear sky. "OK, I GOTTA GET OUT OF HERE..." Wasting no time, he took a deep breath and bellowed out to the sky. "ImAAAAginAAAAtion...imaginAAAAAtiOOOOn...IIIImagIIInatiOOOOOn...imAAAAAginatiOOOOOn..." He looked up in desperation and waited a moment for the portal to appear. But nothing happened. "What? W-was that right? Maybe I should..." He tried again – making sure that he had the exact lines correct. Looking up again, nothing appeared. "WHAT'S GOING ON!?" Now he really was confused. He tried a third time – rushing it a bit and showing signs of desperation. But again, for a third time, no portal back to the Real World would appear. "What am I doing wrong? I sung it right, didn't I?" Getting worried, his thoughts were blinding him from his surroundings and it wasn't until a loud cry was heard that he was brought back to his senses.

"STAN...WATCH OUT!" Goku cried out just as a Dalek landed in front of the 14 year old and pointed its beam weapon at him. Stan didn't know whether to be scared or confused, so instead just stood still and froze to the bone.

"YOU HAVE BEEN I-DEN-TI-FIED AS THE BE-ING KNOWN AS...'STAN'! YOU WILL BE...TEM-PO-RA-RI-LY...EX-TER-MI-NA-TED!" The Dalek called – aiming its laser cannon at Stan's chest and marking Stan in the centre of its blue scope of vision. Still confused and frozen in place, Stan watched as a thin blue beam fired towards him – blocked suddenly by the presence of Goku who managed to block the blast and fire it away into the distance – causing more destruction to the castle grounds. Charging up quickly, Goku fired another blast towards the Dalek unit. The blast exploded the unit into pieces and Stan found it in himself to run back into the building – now filled with fear. "NO...LET ME OUT OF HERE! LET ME OUT!"

The four other characters joined Goku in defending the entrance into the building on the stone walkway as the masses of orcs and Daleks continued to attack them at every angle and height.

Back inside, all Stan could see beside him was a blur as his thoughts were only focused on one thing. _WHY?! WHY?! Why can't I get back?! Did I say the wrong words, did I say it right?! NO, I couldn't have done. HOW!? WHY?!_

"Sir Stan!" Juliet called from the distance – breaking Stan away from his inner focus of self-fear. Tripping on the change in texture on the ground, Juliet flung herself forward and grabbed Stan just as he hit the ground. "Stan...are you alright?"

Stan's eyes were shaking somewhat and the look on his face was surprisingly different than it was a few minutes ago. Within a blink, Stan had gone from being his normal self into somewhat of a scared state. "I can't escape..." He murmured in a feared tone. "There's no way out...oh God, NO."

The words sent shock into Juliet's eyes - not out of unexpected surprise of hearing such a thing and seeing such a state...but the complete opposite, the unexpected surprise of hearing such a thing...already.

"Stan? STAN!" Kyle called from behind – sprinting over to Stan's side and looking down in more shock than Juliet. "What's wrong with him?"

Juliet quickly turned her focus back. "Oh...don't worry, he's just a little shocked, that's all."

"HA, Stan scared...yeh right." Kenny rolled his eyes – appearing behind also along with Butters. Finally, Stan knocked out of his feared state quite quickly and looked up.

"Wha...where am I, what happened? Am...am I still HERE...oh God, no."

"Oh jeez...those nasty monsters outside sure must have scared Stan alright." Butters added.

Juliet looked down and sighed slightly "No...it's not those creatures outside...it's...it's something else."

"Huh?"

Suddenly, an explosion rocked the corridor as a wave of rubble soared down from the door that Stan had just come from. The explosion lit up the visions of all five. Covering her eyes, Juliet looked forward and squinted at the sight of a slow-moving creature appearing in the light. It didn't take long for the creature to appear – slowly moving across the carpeted floors of the castle corridor and towards the five individuals now positioned at the other end. "Jesus Christ...it's a Dalek." Kyle cried out.

"What'd you say?" Butters interrupted getting immediately silenced by Juliet's quick plea.

"QUICK...ALL OF YOU...get out of here now!"

"But what about you?" Kyle asked.

"Just GO...I'll defend this area."

"Come on dude..." Stan responded – grabbing Kyle's arm, which sent a ripple of surprised satisfaction down Kyle's body and sent a slightly tint of shock into his eyes. The four boys made their way back down the corridor where in a matter of moments, they bumped back into Romeo, Link and Mr. Game & Watch.

"THANK GOODNESS..." Romeo exclaimed taking a sigh of relief. "Where's Juliet?"

"Ummm...she...stayed back...she said she was going to defend herself against one of those Dalek thingies."

"WHAT?!" The relief instantly fading away.

"She won't stand a chance against one of those things." Link added showing just about the same level of concern.

"**TICK-TICK EEEEK RING BEEEEEP BEEP TICK-ICK!**" Mr. Game & Watch added – looking up at both Romeo and Link.

"Agreed...you two take these four to where the pegasi are. I'll go back and help the others. LET'S MOVE!" To which Romeo set off back down the corridor just as Link and Mr. Game & Watch led the four the other way towards the secret courtyard.

"WAIT...what the hell did that little flat guy just say?!" Kenny expressed – the more confused one of the four.

Back in the corridor, the two characters of opposite sides stared at one another. Juliet, now standing, looked straight into the presence of the being now only a few metres away from herself, whereas on the other side, the Dalek looked through its blue and white digital visionary – thinking nothing but of the termination of what it saw as a pathetic and inferior life-form.

"I-DEN-TI-FY YOUR-SELF!" The Dalek bellowed out in his digitized voice.

Juliet looked back up with arched eyes and slowly took out the sword she was carrying by her side. Grabbing it tight and placing it by her waist, she stared forward again and replied. "I am the semi-ruler of this castle and the very kingdom that your evil kind have entered." She angled the sword slightly upward. "I am the surviving member of my family - the 8th representative of the Strength of Nine and the 5th Order of the Anime Province of Land NE-A.22..." Finally, she lifted up the sword with vast power and aimed it straight at the Dalek's sole eye. "I am...Juliet Fiamata Asto Capulet...and you WILL NOT pass!"

The Dalek simply looked on and showed no emotion to Juliet's statement. "DA-LEKS DO NOT TAKE OR-DERS FROM IN-FE-RIOR SPE-CIES!"

"Inferior or not...but you are nothing more than a murderous abomination...and I'll do whatever it takes that is within the limits of my strengths and skills to see that you are stopped!"

"YOUR IG-NOR-ANCE IS AS PA-THE-TIC AS YOUR IN-FE-RIOR STATE-MENT. ALL IN-FE-RIOR LIFE WILL BE EX-TER-MI-NATED!"

Juliet remained frozen in her position – staring back at the evil character now in front of her.

"JULIET..." A voice broke her away from her concentration and she turned around and was shocked at the sight of her beloved Romeo.

"ROMEO...NO!"

"A-NOTH-ER IN-FE-RIOR CHA-RAC-TER?!"

"YOU!" Romeo cried out – quickly pulling out his sword and aiming it at the Dalek. "You and your kind will pay for the destruction you have caused on these fair lands. NOW DIE!" He began sprinting towards the Dalek with sword in hand – much to the disagreeing outcry of Juliet.

"EX-TER-MI-NATE!" The Dalek cried out – aiming his beam gun at Romeo and firing. Luckily, Romeo widened his eyes at the sight of a beam of energy heading towards him and out of defence, moved his sword in front of him to take the beam's hit – knocking back onto the wall with a crashing thud and onto the floor slightly paralyzed from the force of the blast. "NOW YOU RE-A-LISE YOUR IN-FE-RIOR EX-IS-TENCE COM-PARED TO THE MIGHT OF THE DA-LEKS!" The Daleks cried out in proud fashion as Juliet tightened her grip on her sword. "EX-TER-MI-NATE!" The Daleks fired again, this time at Juliet. Just like Romeo, Juliet was sent crashing back onto the wall at the end of the corridor with sword in hand – landing just next to Romeo. But as Juliet opened her eyes again, another larger-looking blast shot its way through the Dalek's head section from behind. Her eyes widened again at the shock and was surprised yet again to see the other characters, Icarus, Harry Potter, Snake, The Doctor and Goku, who had just fired an energy blast into the now destroyed Dalek, were now standing at the entrance of the corridor.

The five rushed down to aid the two fallen characters.

"Romeo, Juliet, you two alright?" The Doctor asked – helping both up from off the pile of wall debris.

"Uggggh, yeh, I'm fine, thanks Doctor." Juliet responded, showing a smile.

Suddenly, a barrage of small blasts struck at the surrounding walls and ceiling. Behind them were a large group of several Daleks moving into the castle corridor. "No time to hang about...we gotta find the four boys and get out of here." Harry Potter exclaimed.

"Right...don't worry, I've sent Link and Mr. Game & Watch to guide them to where the pegasi are..." Romeo took command. "Snake, Goku, you two cover our backs and keep those Dalek things away from us, everybody else...follow me." As the others made their way back down the corridor and into the depths of the castle, Snake and Goku stayed behind and fended off the incoming attacks from the groups of Daleks – through bullets from Snake and with energy blasts from Goku.

Back in the castle, Link and Mr. Game & Watch were fighting off the orcs that had managed to get in the region. Moving past the large rooms and down into the inner garden area of the castle, they found themselves starting to get surrounded by Daleks which had now infiltrated major castle regions too.

"Dam, there's too many of them. Boys...take cover between us." Link called to which the four moved in between the two characters.

"Oh hamburgers...they're all around us."

"Jesus Christ...there's so many." Stan cried out.

"Don't worry Stan...I'm...I'm sure there'll be a way out of this...there has to be." Kyle replied in front of Stan.

Stan looked down and sighed with a sad look on his face. _No, I'm afraid there isn't Kyle...there just isn't..._ he thought to himself – knowing the inevitable truth that lay before them that the other three hadn't realised yet.

"Mr. Game & Watch...how you holding up back there."

"**BEEP RING...TICK-TICK BEEP!**" Mr. Game & Watch responded – chucking G&W sausages and other items left, right and centre and working up a sweat at the same time. Brushing away the monochrome droplets coming off his flat face, Mr. Game & Watch came up with a crucial idea and looked back at Link. "**BEEP! TICK-TICK EEEEK ICK-RING – TICK-BEEP TICK TICK RING BEEP!**"

"Are you mad, you could get killed out there!"

"**BEEP RING BEEP, TICK-TICK EEEEEK ICK RING RING!**"

"OK...boys...follow me..."

"W-w-wait...what the hell was that all about – WHAT did he say?!" Kenny yelled – finding this whole thing of not understanding a word he said, as becoming ridiculous now.

Mr. Game & Watch, now surrounded by Daleks, clenched his little 2D hands and prepared himself. Without wasting a second, he quickly took out two of his G&W buckets and started blocking himself from the Daleks' beams using them. The buckets began to fill up and as they reached full capacity, Mr. Game & Watch let them loose and threw the energy he had built up in them back at the Daleks. The 2D oil-like splatter smashed into the Dalek forces and without warning, caused them to explode. He kept repeating the same process – blocking himself using his buckets and then firing back the collected energy back at the Daleks until there were no more. A few minutes on and there wasn't a single Daleks left. **"RIIIIIING!**" He cried out for a brief second- wavng his G&W alarm bell and appearing to do some kind of frae-by-frame victory dance. But now was not the time to celebrate, and with that back on his mind, the little 2D character frame-sprinted back out of the garden.

Back in the corridors, the onward-moving characters charged through rooms and flights of stairs – all the time getting halted by swarms of orcs that they needed to beat and get past. Romeo and Juliet, the ones leading the pack, had no trouble in fighting off the evil orcs with their swords – helped graciously with the aid of Harry Potter and his magic and The Doctor's clever use of his sonic screw-driver locking all the doors behind them so that no orcs could follow behind. You could tell from even a scenario like this, that these group of imaginary characters had been together as a group for quite some time – their smoothly executed offensive and defensive moves provided nothing but successful counter-active ability against the task that was up against them and they showed no signs of stopping that success of working together.

Further back, Goku and Snake were doing well to see off the attacks from the Daleks. Having fallen back too far from the others, the two were forced to go an alternate route through the castle which saw them coming face to face with swarms of both Daleks and Orcs now appearing in every room and corridor they rushed into.

Within the deepest surrounding of the courtyard, underneath a raised gazebo platform, Link and the four boys had finally reached the pegasi that were standing gracefully side by side in the shadows of the gazebo's underside. Although the courtyard region had been fairly quiet for the majority of the times, crashing noises and explosions had caused the pegasi to be on the edge a little and appeared to be in state of cautious awareness. It wasn't long before the five other characters appeared from the other flight of stairs on the other side. And finally, taking one step at a time with their back turned, Goku and Snake, the final two characters of the nine joined up with the others.

"Alright we're here; let's get out of this place, NOW!" Goku shouted, shifting his attention immediately to what was in front.

"Right...boys...take our hands; you'll be flying with us." Juliet called – driving the boys' attention to the fact that the four would be riding on these creatures – much to the dissatisfaction of the four, it would be high in the air too.

"WHAT? You expect us to get on THESE things!?" Kenny cried out with a shocked look on his face.

"We don't have time for this – those creatures will be here any minute." The Doctor hurried them – looking down at them as he climbed atop one of the pegasi as one of the passengers.

"But sir...I'm not very good with heights...and those horse things don't look mighty strong." Butters added – agreeing on par with Kenny's fears.

"Hey kid, these pegasi are the mightiest winged creatures in this kingdom – they're no weak creatures." Romeo expressed – not wasting any time and yanking both Butters and Kenny onto the pegasi he was riding and taking control of.

As Stan and Kyle were taken onto the pegasi that Juliet was controlling, Kyle soon realised something. "Hey, wait...where are we going anyway? What about this castle and all the people in this kingdom as well? Those Daleks and Orcs will surely go after them once we're away from here, right?" Kyle's concerned yet truthful words sent sighing emotions into both Romeo's and Juliet's face. The two looked at one another from across both pegasi's and nodded uneasily and with that, they flicked on their rope whips and took off. "HEY, WAIT...YOU CAN'T!" Kyle shouted – realising what they were now doing.

Within a matter of seconds, the five pegasi were soaring into the air and high above the castle region – now heading away and towards the entrance area of Neo Verona. But the sight of the city getting blown to bits and burned horribly was of an awful sight – the amassed army of Daleks and Orcs had already begun to focus their attention on the city as well as the castle. Kyle looked down in horror – legions of Orcs burning houses and rocking buildings into debris messes with rocks and flaming arrows while the Daleks simply blasted innocent civilians and city-folk to death with their lasers. "No...all those innocent people..." He looked further down and began to lean his body too much to the left. "NO..." Suddenly, Kyle's grip around the pegasi's body slipped and his legs slipped to the side and off. Before long, his entire body slipped off the side and began to fall – saved at the last minute by the clutch of a hand. Kyle looked up - having realised what his shock has gotten himself into. But then he was even more shocked to see that Stan was leaning his own body off the side – clutching onto his bare hand with all the strength he could find.

"Stan!"

"Hang on Kyle..." That tingle Kyle felt previously rushed through his arm again and nearly took over the strength he was using to grip Stan's own hand. "DON'T you dare let go, dude." Stan shouted once more.

"Here...take my hand too, Kyle." Juliet cried – reaching her own hand out to aid Kyle. Slowly moving his other arm up in the air, he grabbed the other aiding arm and was lifted back up onto the pegasi. "Kyle...you must understand...the safety and protection of you along with other three is of high importance to us nine characters."

"But what about all those down there dieing and getting innocently slaughtered. Don't you care about them?!" Kyle pleaded. "You're supposed to be the ruler of this kingdom, aren't you?" The statement shot Juliet back into a state of guilt. Looking down, she fought with herself deep down and sighed again. "Yes...that is why...for the good of Imaginationland and ALL that dwell within it...we MUST protect you four at all cost...ALL cost."

The voices went quiet for a second – Kyle looking down again and feeling nothing but slight anger and guilt even as the same sight of slaughter, destruction and death continued as they flew across the city region.

Suddenly, from behind, a laser shot just wide of the pegasi that Stan and Kyle were riding on – sending the pegasi into a state of shock.

"What was that?" Stan asked in shock.

"It's the Daleks...they're BACK." Kyle responded – looking back to see a group of Daleks now flying towards them.

"Dam...they're following us." Juliet yelled to the other characters.

"Indeed...we can't gamble on the safety of these four..." Link replied – floating down with the pegasi that he was controlling. "Romeo...Icarus...Mr. Game & Watch!"

"Yes?"

"Yes?!"

"**BEEP!**"

"Romeo...you and Juliet continue on and get these four as far away from here as possible...I along with The Doctor, Snake and Goku will defend this area and prevent any others from getting beyond us. Icarus, Mr. Game & Watch, you two go on the offensive and try and distract them away from here."

"Yes...right away..." Icarus nodded – stretching out his now appearing wings and letting Mr. Game & Watch climb aboard him. As the two characters went on the offensive to distract the incoming Daleks, Link, Goku, Harry Potter, The Doctor & Snake stayed in their positions and fended off another group of Daleks and Orcs on their flying monsters.

The four boys couldn't help but turn around as much as they could to watch was going on. They watched as Icarus, with Mr. Game & Watch now standing on his back, blasted straight toward the group of Daleks.

"Be careful Icarus – don't go flying too close to the sun." Butters shouted to which both Kyle and Kenny rolled their eyes and sighed.

Mr. Game & Watch, now holding a Stinger Missile launcher that Snake had given to him, began firing blasts of missiles towards the incoming Daleks – Icarus flying rings around them in the process. Meanwhile, the other five characters fended off the group of flying Orcs and their winged monsters along with a few other Daleks too.

"Yeh...take that mother-fucker!" Kenny shouted – swinging his arm and loving every blast that was seen in the distance. Meanwhile, Stan, who was the only one not paying attention to what was happening, looked down at his hands – opening his palms and questioning quite literally why the thing that was still bugging him, was happening. _I don't understand it... _he repeated in his head, _...I'm sure I said the right words AND the right tones... _the problem was seriously getting him worried. _...why couldn't I open up one of those portal things back to the Real World?_ It was worry now that filled Stan's face – something of which Kyle was the first one to spot and also, be worried about.

"Stan?! Something wrong...dude?" Stan, with a slight upset look on his face, slowly looked up at Kyle and sighed. "Dude?"

He sighed again. "Kyle...something really really strange is up here. Something...REALLY strange."

"Huh...what, you mean this whole battle thing right now?"

"NO...not that...it's...oh God, something...much worse than that..."

"W-what?"  
"Kyle...we..."

"YEH...that thing took it in the FUCKING FACE DUDE!" Kenny laughed and yelled – interrupting Stan's contrasting softer-toned voice.

He tried again – this time, deciding to whisper it into Kyle's ear, which slightly took Kyle by surprise. But the moment that Stan had finished saying what had to be said, Kyle was of nothing but complete and utter shock – a certain shock which could be seen all over.

A few minutes later, the seven battling characters decided to retreat their way towards the other two pegasi. "You two...LET'S MOVE...we've done all we can." The Doctor shouted to which Romeo and Juliet commanded their pegasi and followed the three other pegasi across the city and finally, away from its borders into the open lands of the region.

And it was at that point, when the noise of destruction and explosions and outcries had finally faded away, that Kyle looked down in complete shock and immediate denial and thought silently to himself. _NO! That's impossible. We could before...we COULD...how is it that we can't now?! No...NO...no no...this is wrong...it has to be! There's no such thing as NOT being able to get back...there just isn't..._

But it would only be a matter of time – a time in which they would arrive at their next destination, which Kyle and the three others would soon learn the horrifying truth that sadly, they now DID have such a thing of not being able to return.

-


	6. The Imagined Truth

**Author's Notes: Apologies for the big delay in an update - ff's server(s) must have a personal vendetta against me or something. Anyway, this is the real beginning of chapters starting/ending in different locations and scenarios with other characters that are important to the story. I'll be keeping about 3 or 4 different parts running during this story which will all come together in the end for the finale - hope that won't confuse/annoy you too much. So, let's continue...**

**The Imagined Truth**

Deep within the dark and lonely central floors of the Pentagon, General Jim Macenvoy sat stressed and aggrevated as he usually was on a work-day afternoon. His office; surrounded in dimness and annoyingly cold, had been silent for some time. The hours seemed to have felt like nothing to the late 50s General. As he looked down at the vast complexity that was his paperwork and collection of high-level governmental documents, he scrumbled up a spare sheet to at least try and export some of his built up stress. Chucking it into the nearby metal bin, and missing, he looked up at the wall of digital clocks opposite him and checked the face that had 'US' in mediocre sans-Serif font. **Time – 12:48**. He had been here since 5am and the stress of work had already got to him. _Dam long hours... _he cursed to himself, beginning already to scrumple up another sheet of paper.

As the leading general at the Pentagon since 2002, he had seen plenty of action and severe moments in history – especially those in his own country of America. However, none had come close to what he experienced only 4 years ago exactly. Gulf war battles, terrorist attacks, terrorist threats, middle eastern wars – all those horrific events didn't come close to the one event and indeed the one war which, in his opinion, he had clear privilege of being a part of. _Imaginationland... _he thought to himself again – that one word and indeed one name, striking a clear series of memories in his head. It was 4 years ago that he became the first general in US history to bear witness to the roar power, and indeed amazement that the realm of Imaginationland had to offer. _That was one hell of a place... _he remembered – taking note of the vast stretching lands and the surreal un-Earthly properties of that land. More and more he looked back on that one moment in his life where he was standing side by side with characters that human beings had come up with, and walking across lands that human beings had imagined to exist somehow and in some way also.

But at the same time, where there is delight, there was also doubt in his head too. As a Pentagon General, his brain worked in only one way – cautiously, protectively...and at times, patriotically. He had become too aware of what Imaginationland really was. Over the past 4 years, he would find himself looking back at Project Imagination-Doorway – the highly advanced portal the US government had built in order to create and open a portal into the Imagination. The now deactivated device remained in the technology chamber of the Pentagon – standing and staring with a blank field of nothing between it. The more the General stared at it, the more his opinion of Imaginationland changed. _It is a land within a World WITHIN a World... _he realised, _...but, how BIG of a World is it?_ The curiosity soon led to fear and then to an automatic stance of defence. He couldn't help but think that the US Government had been too soft with leaving the realm of Imaginationland entirely for those four long years. _What if... _which would soon be followed by numerous questions of panic and severe paranoia at times, which made him question his own sense of jurisdiction as a General here.

But now was not the time to dive back into a pool of doubt in his mind, there were other more pressing issues to be concerned about. The continuing watch over incoming external threats, peace and protection for the internal regions of America, the use of military across the World...and more importantly...what he was going to get for his daughter's wedding that WASN'T over a given price. _Dam economy... _he cursed again – taking reference to America's still slow and depressive economic culture. _...we do our jobs here, so why can't the guys on dam Wall Street sort THAT out as well, huh?!_

"Sir...SIR, thank God you're here." The General's specialist right-wing official, Tom Hamilton spoke, marching into the General's office without warning.

"Oh goddam it Tom, can't you at least knock before you come in, GOD!"

"I'm really sorry sir, but I need to talk to you for a moment about something really important."

"Not now! I've still got my daughter's birthday present to sort out here...goddam Wallmart raising prices again...sonofabitch." The General murmured the ending.

"I realise that, sir. But...but......but..."

"But WHAT?!"

"Sir...take a look at this..." Tom passed a brown paper file to the General.

Opening up, the General took hold of a thin sheet of printed paper that had numerous 2D and 3D graphs all over it. "What the hell is this?"

"They're readings sir – readings of unidentifiable energy surges located in several un-coordinated parts of the United States."

"So?!"

"Sir...the energy readings were unidentifiable in class...but...they WERE identifiable in source..."

"Source? Tom...what the hell are you..."

Suddenly, the General was interrupted by the presence of another paper file – this time, marked with a thick-coated red insignia on the top left corner of the file's sleeve. Tom slowly passed it into the General's hand. "Sir...readings have been confirmed...as originating from Point Neo-Delta..."

As if some form of deadly poison, the General's body went into shock – the two code words sending a chill down his ageing spine. "It can't be! Neo-Delta!?"

"Yes...I'm sorry sir...we've analyzed the data numerous times, there's no doubt about it. These signals originate from Neo-Delta – US Pentagon classification code-name......for Imaginationland."

-

High above the current ever-stretching forests of trees and flowers, the five pegasi were ending their long journey as within the hidden opening of the forest, the boys' next destination was beginning to take view.

"Boys...BOYS...look, there it is." Juliet spoke – bringing the four's attention to the castle that now lay before them below. "...our next destination – Castle Moonlight!"

"Castle...Moonlight?" Butters thought to himself. "Hey, isn't it supposed to be called Castle Sunshine, lady?!"

"Oh come on Butters...it looks nothing like that place we went to before." Stan called out – giving attention to the fact that indeed was a different-looking region than the other castle.

"Yes, Stan is indeed right there." The Doctor called out. "This is the second castle outpost in these lands – the opposite region to where Sunshine is situated. Not bad for a place that's named after something that doesn't physically exist." He smiled jokingly – failing at his attempts to point out the scientific obvious in a comedic manner, to the four boys.

"OH...MOON-light...yeh, I get it now!" Kyle cried out, smiling.

"Oh Christ Kyle." Kenny rolled his eyes again for the umpteenth time today.

The pegasi began to descend – flying down towards a marbled covered runway-like stretch of path that came off one corner of the castle. It was only until they got closer to the ground that the four boys decided to have a gaze around the region and take in the almost fantasy-esque setting they found themselves in.

Castle Moonlight was a wide-stretching fortress of white and cream-coloured stone coated in glowing vines and roots of the plants above it on the mountainous levels. The castle itself was snuggled into a slightly enclosing mountain face on the back and beside the ever-stretching forest of trees on the right side. To the left was the opening to a lush sparkling lake that radiated bright lilac colours under the now cleared skies – that of which was surrounded by other parts of the surrounding forest. The white marble path they had landed on spiralled up a slightly off-level hill before crossing a rushing moat and into the castle perimeter where the main gate stood. The other marble paths surrounding the castle led off in several directions either around the castle perimeter itself or into other castle-protected areas before whisking away into the depths of the forest. Only one path to the far left corner led to the nearby lake. The castle itself although not the tallest structure was definitely one of the widest. Spreading right across the side of the mountain and right across into the lake region, under the light of the sun and indeed the moon, it shone like a fallen star. It was only at night that the castle's true beauty could be seen where the many moons' rays and star lights would radiate beams onto the stone perimeter and reflect out light that lit up the surrounding area – hence its fitting name, Castle Moonlight.

"Great, it looks as if there hasn't been any form of attack on this place." Icarus noted – inspecting the outer perimeter to see that the castle was still as perfect as it always was.

"Agreed...but that's not to say there won't be any. Let's get the hell in there before any evil characters appear." Snake responded to which the nine characters, followed by Kenny and Butters began walking up the slight slope on the marbled path.

But Stan and Kyle refused to move and remained still. It only the characters a second to realise they were still there. All turning around, they looked at the two.

"Come on boys...we have to get inside." Goku shouted.

"No, we refuse." Stan spoke.

"What?!"

"I said...WE REFUSE!"

"Why?!"

"We're not moving until you explain one thing to us..." Kyle added – sending all nine characters into a state of confusion as to what they were talking about. Even Kenny and Butters were confused. "...Explain why we CAN'T get back to the real World."

Almost instantly, some characters drew back into slight guilt. But what was even more apparent was that Kenny and Butters were now also starting to show shock and confusion in their faces. "WHY is it that whenever we sing that dam song that SUPPOSEDLY lets us get back to our World, nothing happens – no light, no sphere, no portal, no nothing. Now, Stan and I were forced to remember back the entirety of that dam song 4 years ago and we know it off the top of our heads, and I know for sure we're not doing anything wrong. SO THEN...why can't we return, huh?"

"Is that true?" Kenny joined in too – looking up at several of the older characters.

"Oh jeez...I can't stay here too long – I've gotta do my chores and help iron my clothes. If I don't get back in time, my parents will ground me." Butters worried – twiddling his thumbs together and shaking a little.

Finally, The Doctor was the first to admittedly sigh and give the boys a reason to all this. "Boys...there IS a reason why you can't get back..." He begun to which the other characters looked at him, especially Juliet and Snake. "...it all goes like this. Imagine a GIANT two floor building and ONE single tiny lift that connects the floors. Without the lift you can't move from floor 1 to floor 2 and, back again..."

"You could just use the stairs." Kenny laughed to which he was immediately told to shut up by a serious-looking Stan and Kyle.

"...well, it's the same with the connection between your World and ours – there are two realms to begin with, the realm of reality i.e. YOUR World...and the realm of Imagination i.e. OURS. NOW, what connects the two is this tiny little pocket of a dimension that's tightly been squashed between our two realms that stretches for an infinite distance – always connecting, always bridging the gap between our World and yours..."

"We call it the Null Dimension..." Snake added. "...or Dimension 0 or even 0D for short..."

"Yyyyeh...ANYWAY..." The Doctor gladly continued. "...in order to pass from one realm to the other, one must pass through the Null Dimension. BUT, of course, no ordinary human being or even Imaginary character can even survive, let alone step through the Null dimension..." He looked down in a serious fashion for the next bit. "...because it's an empty nothingness – like a vacuum of time and space and even reality itself. It is everything and nothing – no time, no space, no nothing – just a dimension...all on its own, with nothing in it...nothing at all. If someone or something were to step into 0D...well...doesn't take a genius...like me...to work out what'll happen."

"Do they die or something?" Butters asked to which the other three boys looked at him – pointing out that was the obvious result.

"That still doesn't answer our question..." Stan resumed. "...why CAN'T we get back to our World?"

"Which is where our problem lies..." Juliet continued. "...in order to pass from one realm to another...a portal must be created that passes through the Null Dimension and connects the two realms together."

"Think of it as an underwater tunnel..." The Doctor added. "You can't walk through water...yet if you had a tunnel that goes THROUGH the water, you'd be alright."

"But...unfortunately..." Juliet looked down with a slight sad look on her face.

"But what?!" Kyle forced it out of them.

Romeo stepped forward. "HE has prevented the creation of portals."

"Oh, HIM again, huh?" Kenny joked to which the others didn't see the funny side.

"We don't know how he's done it...but he's found a way to prevent the creation of any form of dimensional portal between realms...including the type that is created via the Imagination 'Song'."

Finally, Stan and Kyle let go of their serious looks. "But...how, I thought that was impossible to prevent if you sung it in the right way."  
"Exactly...but...it seems as though HE has found a way around it..." Romeo clenched his fist. "...and it shows just how powerful he has become these past few days..." He looked up. "...which is why we MUST NOT let him get anymore stronger."

"So, if you want to continue and complain about the situation we're in, go ahead..." Snake spoke in a harsh tone. "...but it's NOT going to get any better until we do something about it...and that means YOU helping us also. And if you don't like it, get over it, because we're in a big enough mess as it is."

To which Juliet looked over at Snake and gave him a 'thank you' sort of look – Snake responding with a simple nod in acceptance.

A few minutes passed. The four boys were still taking in all the information they had been given. It was now a situation that needed as much focus and acceptance as they could possibly give, but it was something that, at long last, all four agreed on and decided to follow.

"OK..." Kyle spoke. "We'll help..."

"Thank you boys..."

"But...what will we do in order to protect ourselves when you guys are not around, and stuff?"

"We'll always be around, don't worry about that."

"**RING-BEEP TICK-TICK EEEEK. BEEP BEEP-TICK, RING!**"

"Mr. Game & Watch is right – it is our duty after all."

"OK, I'm getting pretty dam sick of this..." The unknown language once more getting to Kenny's nerves.

"I know...but...what IF?"

"Don't worry Kyle..." Stan put his hand on Kyle's shoulder which sent another buzzing shiver down Kyle's body and widened his eyes. "I'm by your side dude......we'll protect each other." And it was with that the nine characters and the four boys continued their walk up the slope and white path. Kyle's eyes were still wide with surprise. _I'm by your side dude......we'll protect each other... _those words and THAT voice looping in Kyle's head like an obsession. _Thanks Stan... _Kyle spoke in his mind. _And I'LL protect YOU too... _he smiled back behind Stan.

But it was only a matter of moments before the smile on Kyle's face was wiped off just as it was wiped off the faces of the three other boys. As they crossed over the bridge and into the opening steps of the castle entrance, on the other path leading into the castle were groups and groups of imaginary characters getting rushed into the structure by fellow characters – the majority of the characters of which had suffered from injuries or worse, severe injuries.

"Oh Hamburgers!" Butters cried out at the sight of so many bloodied and injured characters.

"Yes...now you see just how awful a situation we find ourselves in, kid." Goku responded.

"Jesus Christ...what happened here?"

"Attacks...from everywhere – every corner of these lands." The Doctor sighed with a slight annoyed look on his face.

"Attacks?!"

"YES...attacks...by the evil characters."

As they got closer and finally reached the front gate where queues of characters were getting guided into the castle, it became more apparent and even more gruesome as to the magnitude of injuries that these innocent characters had suffered.

"HOLD IT!" A voice called from above – hovering down and blocking the boys' entrance. "You're not with the injured group, what imaginary characters are you?" The character, revealed as a blue-robed archangel asked in commanding tone.

"W-well, we're not imaginary characters, we're real people." Stan responded – looking up at the archangel guard.

"What?!"

"WAIT...guard..." Snake shouted – walking up to the archangel. "Snake...one of the members of the Strength of Nine. We have high-level approval access to meet with the leading body of this castle concerning the current situation across Imaginationland."

"Ah, Snake...it is you. My apologies, I was unaware of when you and your group might show up."

"Kept you waiting, huh? Well, we're here...and so are these four, so let us into the castle at once."

"Yes sir...please, ALL...follow me." And it was with that, that the archangel guided the four boys followed by the nine characters into the depths of the castle interior.

A short distance away in the shrouded shadows of the surrounding tree tops, the mysterious black-haired individual looked on with sharp eyes and a locked-on focus.

"They've arrived." He recalled the two boys at the front. "So......those two are..." He looked down and placed his hand on his clothed chest and looked back up again. "...I will not waste anymore time in this pointless place anymore..." And with that, the mysterious stranger disappeared once more into the shadows of the forest.

As soon as they had got passed the front gates and the boys had entered into the main corridors, the noise level went from slightly bussling to extremely noisy. Everywhere they looked and in every room they passed were packed groups of imaginary character – either injured or in pain, or those still active and attempting to help those that were injured.

"Fuck...and I thought I was the only one to feel pain." Kenny spoke.

"Kenny...all these characters are seriously injured - stop making jokes." Kyle responded back.

"I'm not making jokes. And hey, at least these characters are actually getting sympathy...unlike a certain someone." He rolled his eyes.

"Wow, this castle sure looks mighty similar to Castle Sunshine." Butters remarked to Stan – taking note on the familiar stone textures and light-coloured rooms and surroundings. As they passed an outside corridor next to a balcony and looked out into the encircled courtyard which would usually be nicely quiet, the reality of the situation came to light. The courtyard, now filled with injured characters and noise gave the four boys startled looks entirely and was something that none of the nine other characters weren't expecting.

"Please...this way..." The archangel spoke again – guiding the boys down a wide spiral staircase that went down between 10 and 20 floors into the ground. The castle appeared to spread downwards into the underground region as well as stretching across the side of the cliffs.

Once down, the archangel opened two large metal doors to reveal the heart of the castle. A mammoth grand multi-floored hall that was full to the bursting with injured characters and those characters who attempting to help out. Even the balcony perimeter and several staircases to the lower levels of the hall, which went around the square edges of the grand hall, were covered with seated and laying characters suffering from various types of injuries from small cuts and bruises to severe burns, slashes and attacks.

"Boys, stay close – this place can get quite crowded quite quickly." Icarus spoke to the four.

"Heh, I think it already has." Kenny replied – giving a quick smirk before returning to, just like the other three, complete shock at the sight of what was directly in front and around them.

As they descended the first flight of stairs, it wasn't long before numerous characters of different shapes, sizes, genders, species and colour started giving surprised looks at all four boys. Looks soon turned to whispers which in time, turned to conversations about their current presence here. _The four __**Creators **__are here?! _would usually be the whispered words or thoughts running through the minds and groups of characters all around the underground hall. And once they made their way down to the central set of staircase into the main bowl of the grand hall bottom floor did the four boys begin to feel both glad about being able to recognize some of the characters there, but also feel sorry for seeing those characters with injuries and at times, in severe pain. Finally, after moving into the most crowded part of the floor, the Strength of Nine looked at the boys again.

"OK boys, I, Romeo, Snake & Link need to speak to the leading council of this castle. Wait here until we need you – it is then that we will lead you in also so that they may talk to you." Juliet spoke.

"Wait...what are we supposed to do until then, huh?" Kenny asked – already getting slightly aggravated at the sheer large volume of characters around him.

"Help the others out with taking care of some of the injured – go around and give your aid, alright."

The four boys said nothing and gladly (minus Kenny) agreed to help out. But before the four characters could progress to the back of the hall, a voice cried out from the side.

"ROMEO......JULIET!" The voice cried in a blinded tone. The two turned around and were shocked to see who was there being carried by two winged fairies.

"HAMLET?!" Romeo cried – rushing over to the injured character and aiding him in resting him on the floor. "OH NO...my good friend...what happened?!"

"Hamlet?" Kyle spoke in a startled tone. "You mean THE Hamlet..."

"Hey Kyle..." Stan whispered. "Isn't that that prince dude from that Shakespeare play thing?"

"Yeh...I think it is...Jesus Christ, his eyes."

"Hamlet...what happened?!" Romeo asked in a shocked and slightly upset tone.

"Uh...my eyes...God my eyes..." Hamlet spoke – bringing attention to the massive burns across his currently closed eyes. "...I tried dodging an enemy's energy attacks and got my face burned trying to do so...and ARGHHH...OH GOD...IT HURTS...my eyes, they felt the full force of the blast."

"NO...Hamlet."

"Romeo!" Kyle shouted – grabbing his garment. "Now's not the time...if you need to see this council thing, then you can't waste time, right? Come on!"

Romeo looked down at him and nodded – standing back up and looking at Juliet, Snake and Link. "Yes, absolutely. OK, we four will go on and begin the meeting. Everybody else, please help out as best as you can."

With four of the nine now moving towards the guarded smaller door at the back, Stan, Kyle, Kenny & Butters along with the other remaining characters began to help out the injured. It only took a few minutes for each individual boy to get involved with aiding the injured.

Stan stood with Harry Potter as they helped aid one character with a cut leg.

"OK...can you raise your arm at all, Yoshi?" Stan asked to which the green dinosaur shook its head and sighed in an upset voice. "Right, Harry?"

"OK..." The boy wizard looked down at the injured Yoshi and aimed his wand at the dinosaur's cut. "Yoshi...I'm going to give you a healing spell...but it'll take a little while and you'll need to put some pressure on it too. I know it'll hurt, but that's the only way."

With Stan giving its body some support to lean on, the Yoshi sighed and began putting some slight pressure on its right leg much to its painful dissatisfaction.

On the other side of the central area, Kyle looked on at Stan and sighed deeply. Watching on, he put his arm out and tried to almost clutch onto him from a distance. The noise wasn't helping his low state of thinking and was soon brought back to the proceeding by Icarus. "Kyle, I need you to help me with these injured Smurfs. Help them tale these medicated drinks and ensure they don't pass out, alright?"

"Y-yeh, s-sure...no problem."

To the far right corner of the hall, Butters stood next to a character now seated up on the floor against the wall. "Oh jeez...ummm...Mr. Cloud...sir, do you think you can move your neck at all?" He asked in a soft and polite manner.

"NO, I can't...it's gone into spasm and it hurts to move it even the slightest." The warrior Cloud suddenly felt a nerve pinch at his neck. "OWWW...AH, GODDAM IT!" Swinging his large sharp sword around the air in frustration, Butters looked back.

"Oh jeez, you should...you know...be careful with that there sword you got a hold of sir – someone would be mighty soar if they got hit with that thing."

And on the opposite side, along with Mr. Game & Watch, Kenny sat beside another tearful dinosaur – this time, a purple dinosaur.

"**EEEK-TICK. BEEP TICK-BEEP TICK TICK RING-TICK-RING BEEP, RING?**" Mr. Game & Watch asked.

"OH...YES...of course...anything to get rid of this awful pain." The weeping dinosaur spoke in a teary tone.

"Wait, what the hell did he just say?" Kenny asked in a startled and confused voice as Mr. Game & Watch picked up a syringe, tapped on the needle's tip and slowly injected a medical liquid into the purple dinosaur's arm, to which Kenny was pulled into shock as the dinosaur character grabbed a hold of Kenny's hand and squeezed it tight – trying not to think about the pain of the needle as he attempted to think of something else.

"I...LOVE...YOU......YOU....L-L-LOVE.....M-M-M-ME! OH GOD!"

"Yeh...OH GOD indeed...I'm sat here holding hands with Barney the friggin' dinosaur." Kenny sighed and rolled his eyes.

And as numerous other tasks of aiding the injured were also taking place right across the stretch on all floors of the underground hall, within a smaller enclosed room guarded by archangel guards on the outside, Romeo, Juliet, Snake & Link stepped forward into the dim light and looked forward.

"Fellow leading members of this castle, we come before you to discuss the growing crisis concerning our land......and the futures of the four **Creators **that are present here in these castle grounds..." Romeo began. "...request to begin the meeting by addressing you with what we have to say..."

"Request granted..." One of the member characters spoke from within the dim light at the far end of the room looking straight back at the four standing characters.

With those simple words spoken, Romeo along with the three others began their planned meeting and discussion of what was currently happening and what they had hoped would happen in the near future.

-

**Author's Comments: WOW, only 5 chapters in and I've already featured 25 imaginary characters in this story (yes, I counted), but hey, there's plenty more that I still have waiting to be featured also. And that's not including the next nine characters that will introduce themselves as the leading members of Castle Moonlight – **_**'The Wisdom of Nine'**_


	7. The Wisdom of Nine

**Author's Notes: Both the Strength of Nine and the new branch, the Wisdom of Nine are obviously taken off the almighty Council of Nine, but these two other 'councils' so to speak are what I describe as the different governing bodies of Imaginationland, so if you see these two other councils as that then everything will be alright going on :P. Hence, why they're so important to the story.**

**The Wisdom of Nine**

"Wisdom of Nine..." Juliet continued – bringing about the beginning of what the four characters had to say to the nine members sitting in the dark shadows of the council room. "...we have successfully returned from the city of Neo Verona from within the Anime Province of this quadrant. With it, all four **Creators** are in safe hands with no injuries or causes for concern. They have shown positive signs of a physical and psychological sustainability within Imaginationland. As **Creators **from the realm of Reality, they have tremendous bravery and courage to surpass the first phase of the challenge that we all now face in front of us..."

"...Excuse me, but before Juliet gets too detailed on the positives, let's remember the facts here..." Snake interrupted to which Juliet looked at him. "...we've lost one of our major Anime Province locations to the evil characters, hundreds of innocent civilians have also been killed during the incident and I doubt both the armies of Daleks AND Orcs will be sitting in their new conquered land feeling satisfied with themselves."

"Are you saying that you think they're following us here?" Romeo exclaimed with slight surprise.

"It doesn't take a smart man to realise that. But then again, you're not the smartest tool in the shed are you now, GRAND DUKE."

"What did you say?!"

"Woah, hey...calm down you two." Link butted in – putting himself between the two. "We're all aware that there's a possibility that the evil character armies will probably be heading towards here. But considering how far we've travelled and the camouflaged location that this castle is situated in, I doubt they'll be here anytime soon."

"Link's right..." Juliet agreed – looking back at the Wisdom of Nine members. "...which is why we need a grant of your permission to let us use this castle as a stay-house for just one night so that we can prepare ourselves for the next journey."

"And what are you preparing, exactly?" One member spoke. "You still haven't given us any confirmed information as to your future plans..."

"Besides..." Another member began. "...you must realise that we need as much room and area in this castle as possible. In case you haven't seen it yet, there are more injured characters than there are marbled tiles and the numbers are constantly increasing. Do you understand how important this castle is at the moment, Strength member?"

"Yes Wisdom member, I understand." Juliet replied – looking down slightly and frowning a little.

"Wisdom of Nine, please..." Romeo stood forward beside Juliet. "...is not true that the four individuals we are protecting are **Creators** , right?"

"Yes...what is your point Strength member?"

"My point is...who were the ones who created us characters in the first place?"

"The **Creators**..."

"Exactly...isn't that reason enough for you to grant us this request..."

"But Strength member..."

"NO...listen to ME...we let our guard down or we let our defences NOT be at their most strongest for the sake of these four for just one day or even one SECOND, that's all the evil characters need to succeed in capturing them. I don't know about you, but as a Strength of Nine member, I vowed to protect, defend and honor the existence and presence of these four **Creators **and to do as best as I can for the sake of both OUR World AND theirs." He took a deep breath and looked back up. "We let our focus slip for one second, we fail. It's as simple as that..." He looked into the shadows. "And as Wisdom of Nine members, I would expect you all to show the same level of commitment in protecting not just these lands, but also the ones that we constantly thank for our existence in the first place."

"Romeo..." Juliet spoke – trying to calm Romeo down a little.

"It's OK Juliet...like you, I want to be able to do as much as I can to protect and care for these **Creators**." He smiled to which Juliet widened her eyes slightly and looked to her left to see a serious-looking Snake looking straight back at her giving her THAT look. Nodding, she looked straight ahead once more as Romeo continued. "...It's the least we can do that's able to come anywhere near to the eternal thanks that we all should show to these individuals. So I...no...WE...ask YOU, Wisdom of Nine – those who govern over the intelligence and knowledge of these lands, to consider our request and, for the good of our **Creators**, ensure their protection and safety in this great realm that is Imaginationland."

There was a long silence as the shadowed members of the Wisdom of Nine looked at one another in the darkness. The four Strength member character looked at each other. "Sounds like you've been working on that speech for too long, Montague." Snake whispered to Romeo.

Suddenly, the lights in the chamber went up and lit up the remainder of the brown circular room – revealing the identities of the nine Wisdom members. Leaning against the table and placing her hands together on the smooth wooden surface, the first member of the Wisdom of Nine began speaking. And that character was none other than 9 year old character, **Lisa Simpson**. "Fellow Wisdom members, it has come to a point where we must make a final decision for the good of not just these lands, but for the sake and survival of the four **Creators **that now find themselves in these lands." Lisa then turned her attention to the four characters now standing in front of her at the other end of the room. "Strength members, you must understand what kind of feeling we Wisdom members share. Our opinions have been different and our decisions have been split..." She looked to her left. "...**Sora **for example has some major doubts about the availability of space..."

"Yes, there simply isn't enough space here to accommodate four **Creators**..." Sora spoke – looking down the long table and back at the four others. "...there are plenty of other estates and possible locations to travel to across this region alone. If those are available, we must use them as best we can..."

"But what say you **Lara Croft**?" Lisa looked to her right.

"I understand Sora's concerns for space here, but like Romeo has stated, protection of these **Creators **is of upmost importance."

"What if we help the **Creators **on their journey to a reasonable location nearby using the resources we have here?" Humble character **Mr. Toad** suggested. "Surely we should be able to protect them in those measures."

"And you're sure that the evil characters won't have just-as-powerful if not stronger resources to counteract it?" Snake asked in a sarcastic manner.

"He does have a point..." **Professor Charles Xavier **added. "...the evil characters will definitely be expecting us to come up with this tactic. Even with magic supporting us, we will still be weak against them. I suggest we attempt at a peaceful negotiation with the evil characters in this region."

"NO, we can't do THAT..." Another character banged his gloved fist on the table. "COME ON...are we really the sort of characters to come up with such an idea as a 'negotiation'? Do you really think evil characters are even remotely interested in that?!"

"I agree with **Sonic**..." **Tin-Tin **added. "...we can't just go into a defensive state now after all they've done to our own characters. If we are to move these **Creators **to a safe location, then we must do it with as much offensive surrounding them as possible."

"Yes...but there is one problem that is still to be ignored..." **Edward Elric **began. "...the main region roads out of here and into the surrounding regions of this quadrant are swarming with evil characters – we'd be doomed before we even got going." He sighed. "...judging by those statistics, it looks like we might have quite a problem moving the four out of these regions...even with surrounding protection. We'd be outnumbered before we could call for help."

"Then it is decided then..." **Dorothy Gale**, the final revealed member spoke in a positive tone. "The four **Creators **MUST remain here at Castle Moonlight for at least one night until we can ensure that a safe path onward can be found."

"But what about all the injured characters here – there are too many to situate space!" Sora asked.

"Hey, did you really think this was going to be easy?" Sonic asked. "We have to do what we can for the benefit of the **Creators**."

"Agreed...it may be difficult to accept, but **Creators **come before ANY character..." Xavier ended in a calm tone.

"All in favour of the decision to keep the four here at Castle Moonlight for the duration of one night..." Lisa Simpson stood up to which the eight other members gave her their 'Aye' votes.

"Thank you Wisdom of Nine..." Link spoke. "...your gratitude is of the highest of pleasures..."

"...Now, having sorted that problem out, it's time to move on to another serious matter." Snake brought the Wisdom of Nine's focus to him. "...there are some requests that I along with several other members would like to be granted – one of which is of the upmost importance concerning me, Juliet & The Doctor..."

Juliet looked at Snake again and gave him the same look as he did to her a few moments ago. Snake nodded and proceeded to listen further to the Wisdom of Nine's decision.

Back outside, the four boys were taking a break from helping out the injured as the remaining Strength members departed the chamber for a little while. The break, although allowing them to stay to themselves for a few minutes was certainly not giving any favours for personal space and relaxation in noise, even as Creators. Picking out a group of wooden stools, Butters dragged them over willingly to the other three to which Kenny was the first to park himself on the smoothed wood – his legs stretched out as much as possible and letting out a massive sigh of relief - an annoyed relief, but relief nonetheless.

"Thank Christ we've got a break." He grunted before looking up at the crafted and artistically decorated ceiling.

"Oh come on it wasn't that bad. Besides, you're supposed to be feeling good that we're helping characters out here." Stan responded – sharing the same less-stretched seating position as Kyle and Butters.

"Good?! HA...what's 'good' about all this then. Tight spaces, lots of noise, vile sickly things...and all we get is positions in very stupid places which is supposed to count as helping."

"Oh stop moaning Kenny..." Kyle rolled his eyes.

"Quiet you...I saw the look on your face – getting all happy being with some of the characters that YOU like..." He grunted again. "...why can't I help injured characters that I like for christ's sake?! Goddam luck – you're off with hot anime women and video game characters and whatever...and I'm stuck with Barney the fucking dinosaur and goddam Disney shit..."

"I LOVE Disney..." Butters raised a smile.

"Serves you right – if anybody from your Imagination were injured in here, I think it'd be a soar sight for any children's character that's for sure..." Stan joked to which the other two laughed and Kenny sank lower in his seat in annoyance.

Kenny turned around to see Barney the Dinosaur still getting some minor treatment. Looking up, the purple children's character smiled at Kenny and gave him a wave – sending embarrassed shivers down Kenny's spine and a sweat-drop down the back of his head. "The sooner we get out of here, the better." Continuing as he leaned one hand against his face. "...goddam purple-walking cry-baby sonofabitch..." he muttered to himself.

"Awwww I think it's nice here, Ken..." Butters added. "...helping out all these mighty soar characters is very very nice...yes sir, very nice indeed."

"Yeh I guess it was kinda cool seeing all the tough video game characters acting like total cry babies..." Stan replied. "...like that one character me and Kyle helped out, remember dude?" Turning to Kyle whom was too busy looking on into the distance at some of the Anime characters receiving treatment. "Kyle?"

"Huh-what?"

"Oh yeah, I saw you too helping out that poor old character..." Butters continued. "Your back...must have been pretty soar after all that laying on the floor Kyle......you going under Stan all the time to help that sick character..." Butters words sent Kyle into a state of shocked embarrassment as he along with Butters recalled what he was doing.

It was only a few minutes before that both Stan and Kyle were needed to help a seriously sick character. With The Doctor's aid, Stan and Kyle were able to help the character with multiple-point applications of medicine – both above and below. _Finally, getting a chance to be with Stan again after all this time, _Kyle thought – smiling as they went about helping The Doctor. As Stan called 'not it' on the underside of the character's body, Kyle was forced to lay down and nervously move beneath not only the character but also underneath Stan also...which, as expected, caused Kyle into a severe state of uneasiness for obvious reasons. _All I could see when I kept coming out... _Kyle recalled, _...was Stan's ass. _Back in the present, he looked down in disgust but deep down, with some satisfied turning. _Oh God... _he thought to himself again – the now recalled vision of ducking in-between Stan's seated underside and picking out crude thoughts and feelings.

"Kyle......Kyle? KYLE!" Stan nudged him – bringing his focus back.

"Huh?"

"Oh jeez Kyle...I sure wouldn't like to have done that awful job of going in and out all the time on that floor..."

"Y-yeh...you're right...it wasn't good at all..." Kyle quickly replied – trying to move the topic on.

"In and out...in and out...all on that hard floor...and the movement on your poor back..."

"Alright Butters, that's enough..." Kyle spoke again – forcefully moving the topic on again.

Back in the chamber, the wisdom members had finished hearing the request both Snake and Juliet had put forward. It was a request that not only surprised the faces of the Wisdom of Nine, but also the faces of the other two characters that stood behind them. Both Link and Romeo looked at one another for a brief second and moved forward.

"You can't put forward such a request – such a thought is unthinkable for any of us, you should know that." Link spoke – looking towards the back of Snake.

"Yes...Juliet..." Romeo spoke in a pleading tone – forcing Juliet to look back in slight unease. "...I thought you said you wanted to protect them with ALL your force and might? What happened to that promise – that oath...that we BOTH agreed to on THAT day?!"

"...It still remains..." She said with deep justification and emotion. She turned back around. "...and I keep to my word as I have done these past 22 years..." She looked back at the Wisdom of Nine with a look of steel and a passion burning brighter than the burning flames in the chamber. "...I'm asking for your permission Wisdom of Nine to allow us three selected a grant to exit the situated security of the four **Creators' **protection and defence so that we may focus on other major issues concerning the situation of our lands..."

"Other?" Romeo whispered to Link to which the green-clothed hero showed the same confused looks.

"Juliet..." Lisa Simpson began.

"Yes Wisdom member..." She looked straight forward.

"...what you are asking from us is of great risk and could lead the inevitable outcome of a worst case scenario concerning the **Creators**. Are you saying you are willing to put the now-limited protection of those four on your request for outside personal issues which, according to your statement, share the same issues in terms of concern and careful focus, as the four **Creators**?"

"That's correct."

"And you, Snake...along with your fellow Strength member, The Doctor, share the same beliefs and feelings as Juliet?" Tintin asked – bringing Snake forward.

"Yes..." Snake responded in a more tougher and calmer tone. "...we're all well aware about protecting these **Creators **and keeping them away from the evil characters', and indeed, HIS dirty hands, but these new issues for concern that we three have come across are on par, if not higher, an issue to the lasting existence of this land's peace and prosperity. Would you rather prefer these to just hide away in the shadows of your own ignorance?"

"Careful Strength member...your words will cost you your decision if you are not careful." Edward Elric pointed out.

"My apologies..." Snake responded in a grunted tone – apologising, something Snake was not known to do much.

"Although...having reassessed the situation and the ever-changing statistics of the outside lands of this realm in terms of enemy progression and this other 'minor disturbance' that has come to our attention also..."

"Minor disturbance?" Romeo pondered.

"...we will fortunately grant you external movement outside the defensive perimeter of the **Creators' **protection. All of which, will fall under one condition..."

"And that condition being?" Snake pressed on.

Edward brought up a transparent two-sided hologram up onto the centre of the long member's table. "The areas marked with white glows are regions of our lands that are under high protection and defence. The black glows, unfortunately, are areas that have officially been designated evil-controlled parts..." He pointed to a newly glowing part to the north of the dot marking their current location on the map. "...one of these being the sub-region of this quadrant's Anime Province, the kingdom of Neo Verona." The memory caused both Romeo and Juliet to sadden slightly and look down at the floor. "...Romeo......Juliet...I understand that those lands were under your reign and guidance, correct?"

"Yes, that's correct..." Romeo replied – looking down and too ashamed to look any other way. Juliet meanwhile remained looking forward and focused – not letting personal loss takeover of the major issues at present. But the specific look in her eyes made one Wisdom member curious.

"Juliet......Strength member..." Xavier began – bringing light to Juliet's clenched fists and sharp eye gaze. "...I know exactly what you're thinking..."

"...Well, that's new..." Sonic whispered, rolling his eyes.

"...but you must understand, we cannot afford to lose either the defense or an individual member such as yourself. You have to accept the present facts – we've lost your homelands to the enemy and we have to move on from that..." Her fists remained clenched and her gaze remained sharp.

"...Juliet!" Sonic shouted to which Juliet's eyes and fists freed from a clenched lock. She looked at the blue hedgehog, sighed and calmed down. "...do you understand what we're saying here?!"

"Yes Wisdom member...I understand..." Juliet spoke in a soft tone.

"Strength members..." Tin-tin continued. "...especially you two..." Pointing to both Juliet & Snake. "...it is important that you abide by the laws we have set out and remain in good character-protected parts in any quadrant and surrounding region of these lands. We will grant you your request under the circumstance that you maintain your position OUTSIDE of enemy-controlled lands and AWAY from evil regions altogether. Do you understand?"

"We understand." Juliet & Snake spoke in sync.

"Good...that's that settled..." And after a few more minutes of minor discussion about present issues, the Wisdom of Nine decided on the next importance of this meeting. "It is now time for the four to be brought in here..." Lisa Simpson stood. "...Archangel Guard..."

"Yes m'am?" The red-cloaked guard in front of the door spoke.

"Inform the outside guards to lead the four **Creators **into this room at once."

"YES M'AM." To which the archangel opened the door and walked out at once.

"It is time to determine what the best course of action is in terms of protecting these four." She spoke once more as the 13 characters left in the room waited for the **Creators**' presence.

Back outside, the four boys were locked once more in a conversation. "OK...if you could sleep with ANY imagination or character in the WHOLE of Imaginationland..." Kenny smirked – angling his body forward to hear better to the answers that were about to be given. "...who would it be? Butters...you first..."

"OH JEEZ......ummm...well......can I...ummm...pass..." Twiddling his thumbs, unable to come up with an answer to which Kenny laughed – seeing it as a deceptive way to cover up a real answer he had.

"Alright....Stan, you next..."

"Well..." He began – getting into the swing of things with coming up with a decent answer. "...It'd have to be......" There was a brief pause. "...that woman out of those Metroid games – Samus Araias, or sumin. I guess she's pretty hot."

"OH-HO...going for the older women huh?" Kenny winked. "...you sure are a woman-seeker if you're going for THAT sort of girl..."

"Oh shut up Kenny, you've got guts saying something like that for someone of your 'taste'..."

"Yeh...well...at least MY love attractions don't apply to people in video games..."

"Yeah...like men's magazines are ANY better than video games." Stan rolled his eyes to which Kenny chuckled and looked to the side.

"So...Kyle...your turn..." But Kyle was not paying attention. The red-haired Jew was looking down in a slight sign of upset – secretly thinking to himself. _Why can't he say my name?! Why aren't I important?! Oh, God...I'm getting beat in his satisfaction by a video game character..._ "Kyle!"

"Oh...huh, what?"

"Who would YOU choose to sleep with, if you got the chance to do so with ANY imagination or character here?" Kenny repeated – sending shocks through Kyle's face.

"Oh...ummm..." Kyle hurried – trying to come up with a substitute white lie. "...Well...ummmm...I would...ummm...choose......Juliet...yeh...her." He tried to smile to which the others looked a little confused.

"What...you mean...that girl character that was with us all this time?" Stan asked.

"Ummmm...yeh, what's wrong with that."

"Oh, my mom always said that you should never sleep with another man's woman. And if I ever did it, I'd get grounded."

"Yeh dude...you can't go sleeping with another man's girl." Stan added again – making Kyle blush and sink a little into his own seat with slight embarrassment.

"Oh I dunno...as far as I'm concerned, marital and relational status means SHIT when a bed's concerned." Kenny smirked – chuckling again and looking up at the ceiling.

Suddenly, two archangel guards flew over to where the four were seated. "**Creators**...the Wisdom of Nine has requested your presence in the council's chamber immediately..." The red-robed guard spoke.

"Wisdom of Nine?" Stan asked in confusion.

"Yes...there's no time to waste. Follow us this way please." The blue guard added to which the four boys were lead away towards the back of the hall and into the council chamber.

-

Several miles away outside the perimeter of Castle Moonlight, the deep forests were dim in light and high in pollen from all the surrounding flowers. The freely swaying bunches of sunflowers, irises and daffodils were getting trampled across heavily by the movement of a large group of robotic enemy forces walking ferociously and mechanically towards the castle. Their glowing red eyes and shining gritted metal teeth seem to glow sickly in the shadows of the surrounding trees and bushes. One by one they marched on with rail guns and plasma cannons in hand – their targeting sensors locked right onto the castle perimeter and deeper in the depths of it where their four primary targets lay.

But up deep in the darkest of shadows on the thickest of branches in the densest of trees, the mysterious stranger gazed on with focused eyes and an absorbing silence around him. Following the eye-line of the enemy group, it didn't take long for him to realise where they heading. That said, he has already known and was only here merely to ensure that what he had known was coming true. _Looks like the blinding shadows must give way to the revealing light... _he focused deeply, looking over at the other side of the current encirclement of trees. Opening out his right palm and looking over, he concentrated a little and aimed his opened palm at a group of branches on the other side. Within a second, the branches on the other side began to move, shake, and in result, make a noise to which all the robotic enemies halted, looked to their right and aimed their weapons – scanning the surrounding shaking branches for life-forms. But the scan returned zero traces and the enemy robots turned back left and continued onward, to which by now, the mysterious stranger had already disappeared once more.

-

Back inside the council chamber, the Wisdom of Nine had once more finished detailing both their own and the Strength of Nine's plans, this time in the presence of the four **Creators**. If their plans and issues of concern were too much to take in at the present moment, then the existence of a 2nd council group such as the Wisdom of Nine was way beyond anything else. For Butters and even Stan, the Wisdom of Nine was probably understandable and expected in such a vast land and realm as this. But for Kyle and Kenny meanwhile, this was all new to them. Individual councils of the most well-known and highly-regarded imaginary characters in all of Imaginationland, they explained – three councils in total that watched over, protected, and in times like these, governed over all the provinces and all the quadrants of Imaginationland. It took some time for it to sink into Kenny's head, but Kyle quickly got to terms with how it all worked out; Strength of Nine – the main warriors and protectors of the lands, Wisdom of Nine – the main thinkers and distinguished minds for what was right and wrong, and the Council of Nine – the ruling party responsible for all that dwell within the lands.

"Now is not the time to revel in past history..." Lara Croft brought proceedings back to the topic at hand. "...young **Creators**, the decision on your safety and protection for tonight's time has been decided. You will remain here at Castle Moonlight until tomorrow morning."

"WHAT, in THIS place? Hey, I ain't squashing in-between this lot." Kenny spoke – rolling his eyes and making sure no one was in his personal space.

"Hey, Kenny shut up, these characters are injured." Kyle responded – whacking Kenny on the arm.

"Yeh and I'm not, why is WHY I need a room for myself y'know."

"For now, we have prepared a group of rooms for you four to use. You will find them on the 3rd floor South side – our guards will escort you to them. You four are our highest priority now here."

"WHAT, so you're just swinging all your attention away from all these injured characters and giving us MORE room than THEY deserve...no, NEED?!" Kyle shouted – shocked at the council's decision and sudden change in attention.

"We don't have time for objections kid..." Snake responded sharply. "...just head on up and get some rest and leave us to sort out all the importances."

Kyle remained shocked. "S-stan?!" Looking to his left in desperation – towards the ONLY other person in the room he knew could possibly help him.

"Dude...it's just for one night." Stan responded in an almost apologetic tone to which Kyle's shoulders dropped – followed shortly by a sigh and an unsatisfied look on his face.

But suddenly, as if from nowhere, an angel came bursting into the chamber – gasping for breath and stretching out his arm.

"What's the meaning of this?" Lisa Simpson ordered.

"Wisdom of Nine...my apologies..." The angel guard began – inhaling deeply in-between pauses. "...there is a major urgency......we've...we've received a...a......a..."

"A WHAT?" Snake stared into the angel's face – moving back to let the angel speak his last few words with breath.

"......a message has arrived......from HIM." The entire room leapt up into a large gasp of 'What's almost instantly. "...the evil leader has delivered us a message..."

"What, like a text message or e-mail?" Kenny spoke to which he was entirely ignored.

Lisa Simpson almost instantly brought up the holographic screen that hovered directly behind her, all 13 main characters, the two guards, the angel AND the four boys directed their full attention at the buzzing screen. As the screen began to scratch and shout with electrical noise in order to load the video up properly, the four boys all contemplated what they were about to see.

"Oh jeez...I wonder who this...nasty old evil person is..." Butters spoke softly to the other three to which Stan and Kyle looked at Butters, stared and turned their attention back to the screen – they had ALREADY figured out who was about to appear.

_But...no...NO...it can't, it just can't be... _Stan still tried to hope for a false prediction, but Kyle meanwhile was dead sure of his prediction. And Kenny meanwhile just wanted to get to his room as soon as possible, even though HE too couldn't work out who it was also. "Great, I'm on par with friggin' Butters here."

But in a few seconds, they were ALL about to find out.

-

Several miles away back in the aerial city of Neo Verona, a Dalek unit moved forward. "MA-STER, ALL COMMU-NI-CATION PRO-TO-COLS ARE ON-LINE – REA-DY TO IN-IT-I-ATE TRANS-MIS-ION..."

Out of the shadows a young-looking figure began to walk forward. As the shadows of the buildings gave way to the light of the cobbled paths, the figure took on a human look – a young human look that stared straight at the large camera lens staring blankly back at him...and smirked. "Good..." He turned to his left and to his right – satisfied with the level of fear and terror on the faces of the surrounding hostages that were being held by HIS Daleks and HIS Orc soldiers. "...well then..." He pointed his left index finger at the camera. "...let's get it rolling then..." - the camera being activated, Eric Cartman looked onward and smiled.

-

**Author's Comments: I doubt that there was anybody who didn't see that coming, I know, but there's no harm in a little build-up, right? Don't worry, that'll probably be the last predicition you folks'll get right in this story - I do like my stories with twists. Anyway, here begins Cartman's evil ways throughout the story – sorry for all the Cartman lovers out there, but for this occasion, he's just pure evil with reasons that will be later explained.**


	8. Evil & Neutral

**Author's Notes: This'll be a mixture of speech plus action plus a little more speech on the side, so bare with me in getting to the action part since this is going to be Cartman's first big long (evil) speech to begin with.**

**Evil & Neutral**

There he stood – centre position, forward-looking, staring straight into the eye of the camera and into the eyes of every single character that looked back at him through fear and confusion. The broadcast was not only being sent live to Castle Moonlight, but to all characters throughout Imaginationland. Such a task was near impossible for any good character to accomplish considering the sheer size of the realm of people's imaginations. But with evil on his side and evil now integrated into his future actions, Cartman (his surname still retaining its dominance over the forename) now had the power to do things that no character could. Not that any other **Creator** couldn't as well, but it was the way and fashion in which said actions would soon be executed, that split Cartman away from any other **Creator **of the Real World.

For the first few seconds, he simply stood still – not a word passed his lips whilst the camera rolled on. Those first few seconds allowed everyone to gaze upon him - confusion for the four boys, and pure fear for all others except the odd character in the chamber. Cartman, now 14 years old, was only slightly recognisable in terms of his previous look of 4 years ago. Gone was the short height and fat body, gone were the winter clothes and stretched garments, gone was the short light brown hair and lack of care for physical output. Indeed, this was an entirely different Cartman as far as looks were concerned so far, through the eyes of Stan, Kyle, Kenny & Butters. Cartman's look in terms of the eyes of Imaginationland was more than just well-known by now. Eric Cartman, a 14 year old boy from South Park, Colorado had grown in height the same as the four other boys had.

But that's where the similarity ended. Cartman stood dressed in what could only be described as the smartest and most stylised fashionable five-piece (three or four-piece not even coming close) suit complete with the whole works. He wore a fastened and buttoned dark brown jacket which smoothly ran all the way up his arms and shoulders and down his chest and torsos – from a distance it may have looked black, but the brown tint was clearly visible in the light. Underneath laid a clear white shirt with extremely thin brown lines running across it vertically and above was a tightly fastened tie deep in brown tone and darkening underneath the shadows of his jacket. Down further, past his comfortably straight and horizontally fastened belt were a pair of dark brown trousers fitting perfectly around his legs and leaning nicely on the front of his dark polished shoes – a pair of leather smart shoes fastened smoothly and elegantly with thin black laces. Each rose with an inch heel on the underside which clattered and cluttered with each step he made across the screen on the cobbled ground of one of Neo Verona's many market squares – the burning market stalls eaten alive with burning flames behind him.

But it was his face that surprised the four boys the most. 4 years ago, Cartman was, to put it in a euphemistic manner, a 'little' over-weight as far as the face was concerned. But 4 years later, Cartman was a changed individual – gone were the rolls of fat that lay on each cheek and gone was the greasiness too. He wasn't entirely in a new physical look and was not someone who looked like they had come off of a successful diet – the fat look was still present, slightly. But instead, the face looked young, round and indeed older – it WAS Cartman alright, there was no denying it. And his hair too had drastically changed. Where 4 years ago he was known for having short flat light brown hair, 4 years LATER, was giving light to dark brown hair which went all the way down to his neck behind and just where his forehead was at the front - flicking and angled to the side - with the ears covered entirely at the sides – the hair itself being slightly thicker than previous and perfectly round and smooth. Whatever Cartman had planned, he sure was going to execute it in the smartest way possible, quite literally.

Throughout these first few seconds, only one sound was made throughout the entire council chamber. "Dam" Kenny spoke quietly – either impressed with Cartman's new look or shocked by it.

Cartman coughed – an entire land of imaginary characters shuffling back on sync in slight fear.

"OK...now then...how shall I start this..." He rubbed his hand across his chin – thinking sarcastically. "...Hello? HELLO! HellOOOO...good morning, good evening, greetings, long-time no-see...shimbody slobody dibble-doo......whatever the hell you...THINGS use to introduce yourself......I guess I don't need to introduce myself anymore do I?" He smirked – beginning to walk side to side slowly across the cobbled path with the camera following him. "...I must say I'm rather enjoying this role I've took on here – y'know, the whole 'soon-to-be almighty-ruler-of-all' individuals and whatnot. But there HAS been one part of this role that I, unfortunately, haven't had the pleasure of taking part in..." He returned to his centre position – looking slightly to his right and giving a quick nod.

Everyone in the chamber was on the edge – the boys confused into WHO this individual was, as they were sure this wasn't the Cartman they knew before...and the characters, knowing that something sinister and horrific was about to happen. Indeed, the characters were more accepting in what was about to happen rather than hoping on the opposite.

A few seconds later, two monstrous bulging orcs dragged across the screen a young human character across the cobbled stones towards Cartman. Stopping beside where Cartman stood, the figure came into view – his arms getting tightly gripped by these orcs and forced to kneel looking up and towards the camera lens. As soon as the face came into view, another voice was heard within the chamber – this time, with louder volume. "Benvolio!" Romeo cried – his eyes widening with shock and frozen to his feet. Juliet grabbed his hand almost instantly.

Back on-screen, Cartman picked out a black Single Action Army revolver and loaded one single bullet into one of the six slots – spinning it and aiming it slowly at the side of said character's head. The character, Benvolio, a close friend of Romeo both in the character's lives AND in the characters' created story. Romeo meanwhile remained frozen in shock and fear. "You know...I already killed a character of the Anime type on my first arrival here..." He smirked. "...but it felt like something was missing. Hmmm, what could have been missing from a point blank shot and killing an anime character? Oh yeah, that's right......the cliff-hanger! Will he or won't he...life or death......will this pathetic wasteful excuse for an imitation of human character in such a disgusting and fowl style that is ANIME, be spared of his life – a life which will continue to live out as a life BETTER than my own, all because it was IMAGINED that way."

"It's not my fault you don't like me..." Benvolio whispered in an injured tone to which Cartman turned back around, flicked his fingers up onto the nozzle part and whacked the magazine section across the character's face – sending even more fear and now, anger into Romeo.

"Ooops...WRONG answer buddy..." Cartman looked down at Benvolio whom now was bleeding from both his cheek and his mouth. Looking back at the camera, he moved his fingers back onto the trigger and continued. "...you see, I have MANY issues with this land and the characters that dwell within it. How can you go about your imaginary lives and look at these HUMAN characters and give them a just-as-equal identification as a GOOD character in this World?! Humans are meant to be real, not imaginary. But NO, you continue to spew out these...THINGS...which mimick US......**Creators**. Everywhere I go, everywhere I look there are imagined games, shows, cartoons, everything...all contains some form of human form or character that exists merely to make us REAL humans look nothing more than worthless and pathetic and talentless and pointless to existence..." His words were even more confusing and colder than before. "...I have lived 14 years of my life as nothing more than a worth-nothing human being – outplayed and outbeaten by numerous human CHARACTERS who all share one thing in common – I despise them for having higher abilities and high status of happiness than ME. The created is beating the creator, it seems......what and you think that's right in either of our Worlds? Well, not ME...not Eric Cartman." He moved side-to-side again. "...I have already begun to amass my own land – my own army and my own empire of imaginations and characters that have lain trapped and helpless on the evil side of these lands, in order to help me break free from my unfair shackles of a **Creator **and become......" He suddenly stopped – laughing slightly. "...no, I think it's too early for THAT..." He looked back up again. "...I guess the imagined reality of THIS place for starters will be enough for my speech today..." As if he hadn't begun already, Cartman took a deep breath and looked straight at the camera. "...I have taken control of one of Imaginationland's prized possession lands – the fair and 'oh-so wonderful' aerial city of Neo Verona – the fitting setting for Anime's two finest star-crossed lovers..."

Romeo and Juliet looked in slight surprise – the speech of their own names hitting them like a blade of wind. Cartman walked forward slightly, knelt down and gave the camera a peculiar look. "Oh...speaking of which...I must commend the Strength of Nine's efforts to get THOSE four out of this city unhurt whilst my army of Daleks and Orcs were invading at the same time." He looked up as if he were trying to figure something out. "...Ooooo...those two humans: Romeo Montague, the bastard with the blue hair...&...Juliet Capulet, the bitch with a fucking back-story...lemme guess, you helped the four through the complexity of the castle grounds, evaded my army forces, escaped by Pegasi, fought off any other characters and abandoned your posts as Grand Duke and Grand Duchess – leaving all the vulnerable citizens of your city to fend for themselves in order to protect the four. Gee, talk about 'serving your kingdom'."

The two anime characters were shocked. "How...how did he know that?" Juliet asked – ignoring the offense Cartman barked out about them.

"...oh and did I mention that Kyle nearly fell off his pegasi..." He tutted – shaking his finger. "...naughty naughty girl letting your attention slip. And you call yourself a destined heroic human character of the Anime type......oh how I'm going to enjoy watching you two DIE.........again." He burst out laughing to which Romeo clenched his other fist and Juliet remained in a slight scared fear. "...BUT..." He walked back. "...let's not get too personal and let our eye slip off the ball here. Strength of Nine, you are hiding in what I HOPE is a tightly packed location along with your Wisdom counterparts to which I'm guessing you've already come up with a pathetic plan to shield those four from my grasp and the grasp of my character empire..." There was another pause as he walked back beside the bleeding Benvolio. "...WELL THEN...let me give you a reality check into what you're up against my fellow GOOD characters..." He suddenly pointed the gun at Benvolio's head to which there was a slight gasp in the chamber. "...six slots, one bullet...let's see how lucky you really are human Anime character of Shakespere's creation..." Within a matter of seconds, Cartman pulled on the trigger. Slot 1 – Empty. "...feeling nervy? Your life as a character might be coming to an end here." Click – Slot 2 – Empty. "...doing good so far......but...this is getting kinda boring y'know...let's go!" Click Click Click! There was an even greater gasp in the chamber as they heard the click of emptiness three times over. "Well well...looks like you're a lucky one, human." He smirked – turning to the camera and smiling in a cruel manner. But suddenly, he turned back around to the kneeling character. "BUT......I hate lucky characters such as you...so...looks like...you're STILL gunna die!"

"NO!" Romeo screamed.

As Cartman began squeezing down on the trigger for Slot 6 on his revolver, a loud cry was heard from the side – off-screen on the camera. "NO MORE, YOU EVIL MAN!" A young voice cried. Within a few seconds, a little girl in a blue dress came running across the screen towards Cartman which sent shocks all around the chamber.

"No...NOOOOOO!" Romeo screamed at the screen just as if in some dramatic sequence of events, Cartman looked at the yelling girl with an annoyed serious look on his face, stood up, raised his gun...and aimed it at the little girl. And just like that......Click – Slot 6...he fired – sending the little girl falling to the ground face-first with a growing red stain on her chest area where her heart was.

After that, there was an uncomfortable surrounding of silence in the chamber...and for that matter, quite possibly everywhere across Imaginationland. But in that chamber, four individuals felt the brute force of that action the most.

Back on camera, Cartman walked over to where the dead girl lay, looked down, smirked and looked back up. "...message delivered...and received......pathetic imaginary characters......especially YOU...human characters..." Before signing off, he gave the camera one final look and spoke in a more serious and calm manner. "...and to THOSE four wherever you may be........NO......not four......I think it's about time we start greeting each other by name.........Stan, Kenny, Butters......and Kyle......THIS...is where it all ends.........FRIENDS..." He looked to his slight right again and nodded – cutting the transmission and sending the screen back into its sharp buzzing status. The transmission was over.

A minute passed and there were no spoken words in the chamber, not even a sound came from any of the individuals present. Everyone was too shocked for more reasons than one at what they had just seen. It was clear now that Neo Verona was just one of the many imagined locations under evil control of which the presence of certain evil characters had already been revealed – characters which now, against their usual ways, were now under control and taking orders from this new Cartman individual. It was clear now that Cartman was the sole and only one truly responsible for all the events and incidents occurring across Imaginationland. But something more horrific to Cartman's transformation to this present time led the four boys into a mixture of emotions. True, Cartman had pulled out and even aimed to fire a gun in the past, but this was indeed, the first time that he found whatever inside him to actually pull the trigger and in result, kill someone, whether it be a real human or just a character human. It was a darker and colder moment for Cartman to give proof to his change as an individual – murder of any kind was bad enough to bare witness to, but doing it in front of a vast audience, and from the looks of thing, gloating about it just showed further proof of Cartman's difference in personality now. Whatever was fuelling him was a mystery at that present moment for the four of them, but whatever it was, it had turned him into a monster – a heartless monster – a heartless murderous monster. This was no longer the Eric Cartman of 4 years ago. Indeed, it was worse.

And the boys' only outputs of expression showed that. A high-pitched scream of 'Jesus Christ!' from Stan the moment he pulled the trigger followed by a similarly high-pitched 'Oh Jeez!' from Butters which then lead on to even purer silence. Kenny stood shell-shocked and silent like he usually was......and Kyle meanwhile, was still in the same form of output expression.

Even though characters such as Romeo and Snake were showing the most anger and frustration from their group, they couldn't help but look over to their left just like Juliet and Link did at a twitching Kyle who had his fists clenched so tightly that they were starting to go red. It didn't take Stan and the other two to realise it. "Kyle?" Stan asked to which there was no reply. Kyle continued to twitch slightly, clench his fist and worse, give off these gritting sounds of annoyance, frustration and pure anger. Kyle, of all people, was the one most affected by Cartman's emotions as far as expressing personal feelings towards it, was concerned – it had always been that way in the past. "Kyle!?" Stan called again – trying to put his hand on Kyle's shoulder, but Kyle shrugged it off as he twitched again. His angled head caused the front part of his fuzzy red hair to cover his eyes and shadow the majority of his face. Only his gritted mouth and lower were visible in the dim light of the chamber. "...K-Kyle..." Stan spoke for a third time, this time finding himself backing away from Kyle a little.

"Kyle..." Juliet tried this time – trying to move close to him, but the moment she did so, she got this strange vibe coming from him. She didn't know what it was exactly, but it didn't feel......right.

"No..." Kyle finally spoke in a hard and precise tone of voice. "NO..."

"No?" Kenny responded. "No to what......hey...HEY..." He tapped the darkened Kyle on the shoulder. "...come on, speak up dude...stop being all silent on us all here..." But suddenly, without alert, Kyle spun around, grabbed hold of Kenny's arm and flung him onto the nearby wall – busting a crate in the process. Crashing onto it with a slight thud, Kenny looked forward to see the shadowed eyes of Kyle gazing right at him like some kind of twisted hawk or bird of prey. "...d-dude?" Kenny spoke in a more sincere and hopeful voice.

Kyle took a slow but deep breath and let go of Kenny – looking around the room at the many faces now looking straight at him. "No......more..." He spoke again – wasting no time and barging his way through the door and exiting.

"Dude...what the hell..." Kenny spoke to Stan.

"Where on Earth is he going?!" Snake shouted. "...we've gotta stop him before he tries anything stupid...NOW!" He yelled to the other three Strength members. Looking down at the other three boys, he yelled to them too to get a move on.

Back on the ground floor next to the spiralling staircase, The Doctor along with the other five Strength members was having a short casual discussion – The Doctor, as usual, leading them into one of his past humorous tales of his past journeys. "...so in the end, he held on to it..." They began to laugh slightly. "...the WHOLE space time continuum...and HE managed to hold onto the TARDIS."

"Oh my God, that is so funny......yet still impossible to believe." Icarus replied.

"**B-B-B-B-BEEP – RING TICK EEK-BEEP RING TICK TICK.**" Mr. Game & Watch added – limiting his facial expressions to the only one open-mouth frame he had in that specific head angle.

"I agree...you should warn us first before we have a drink here y'know." Harry Potter added – giving note to the fact that all four of them had taken a large sip of spring water prior to The Doctor's sun-shine.

"WELL...I did warn you – I'm not the only one around here that's BRILLIANT!" The Doctor grinned. "...anyway...so when we got there, the first thing I said was..." Suddenly, he was broke away from his speech by a thud in his back – breaking him away from the rest of the group and sending him to smack against the nearby marble wall. "...what in Gallifrey..." As he looked up, he saw a twitching Kyle rushing down the corridor pushing any character that was in his way to either side. "...Kyle...KYLE!" He shouted, but to no avail.

A few seconds later, Snake grabbed The Doctor. "...where did he go?"

"You mean Kyle?!"

"YES...WHICH WAY did he go?" He shook him to which The Doctor pointed down the corridor at which the four other Strength members followed shortly by the three other boys chased Kyle down the corridor.

"Did I miss something here?" Icarus asked – just-as confused as the others. But knowing that Kyle was involved in this, they had no choice but to put duty before anything else and so quickly followed close by as well.

Outside, the crowds of characters that were once rushing into the castle had now gone. The surroundings were glowing with the colour of the setting sun on the horizon and the trees were slightly swaying with the small gust of wind passing by. Out in the distance outside the entrance and archway to the castle, Kyle could be seen rushing outwards and down the white path back into the field area – his teeth still gritted and his face remaining shadowed in the pool of anger that now covered his face. Whilst running, he continued to twitch and give off angry grunts and gritty noises – still focused on what he had witnessed on that holographic screen only a few moments ago. As he reached the grassy fields with the paths lined across it, the wind around the region started to pick up slightly just as the Strength of Nine followed shortly by the three boys, exited the castle and were not far behind Kyle. Eventually, much to everyone's surprise, Kyle stopped randomly at a central part of the field's white path that led back into the shadows of the forest. All 12 of them stopped too – maintaining some distance between themselves and Kyle. In the middle of field, Kyle stood with his back to the entire group looking outwards towards the ever-stretching forest. A small gust of wind flew by again just as the situation turned silent once more.

One character stepped forward. "Kyle..." Harry Potter began. "...what's going on here?" But there was no reply.

Icarus tried. "Kyle...is something wrong?" Silence. "...has something upset you...or...made you...confused or..." More silence – making the wingless angel look towards the others and shrug his shoulders.

"Hey...KID..." Snake tried a more serious approach. "...it's getting late out here and I don't like leaving ourselves vulnerable like this, so why don't you cut this little act and get back inside NOW..." He tried to walk forward but was put off by the appearance of a much larger and stronger gust of wind separating the group from Kyle. Snake, putting his arms up to his face like everyone else looked through the thick wind to see Kyle still standing there. As soon as the wind had disappeared for good, there was more silence – now clueless silence.

"Let me try..." Stan approached – taking a few steps forward and clearing his throat. "......Kyle?" He asked gently. "...is...something wrong dude..." But there was still silence. Stan started to look worried. "...listen Kyle; you don't have to tell us...I mean...ME, anything you don't want to. But...come on...please...just say what's wrong......" He looked down and frowned – looking back up at Kyle almost instantly. "...you're starting to worry me a little y'know..." To which Kyle looked as if he twitched a little yet again having stayed in a still position for that given time.

"Enough..." Kyle said in a monotone-like voice. "...enough..." He added a little more impact to the voice this time.

"Enough? Enough of what?" Stan asked nicely.

"No more...I've had enough of THIS...and now..." Kyle looked up. "...no more! NO...MORE! NO MORE CARTMAN!" He pressed his feet firmly into the path's ground and inhaled as deeply as he could. Slowly lifting the gritted stance go, he looked up and exhaled. "CAAAAAAAAARTMAAAAAAAAAAAN!!!" Screaming into the sky and deafening the surroundings with his cry – continuing on with its long structure of a curse towards the one individual he most certainly loathed now.

But just as Kyle began to scream continuously onward at the sky, a blast of energy appeared from out of the forest and blasted the ground just slightly in front of Kyle – sending debris of the path into the air and dust into the surroundings.

"Kyle!" Stan cried – unable to see through the thick wall of dust. But it didn't take long for the dust to settle and once the way was clear, the current situation became much more severe. In front of them and indeed directly in front of a now collapsed and surprisingly scared Kyle were an army of robotic characters with large rail-guns and laser cannons.

"Good lord, it's an army of Terminators." The Doctor cried as the front Terminator robot looked down at Kyle through its crimson-glowing eyes. Realising that this was one of the primary targets, it pointed its rail-gun at Kyle and began to charge, to which point Goku from within the group charged forward. The Terminator soldier, looking up aimed its gun at Goku and fired – sending a bolt of lightning and energy towards Goku whom managed luckily to block it with his bare hands. But the Terminator soldier was not alone and beside it stood other soldiers whom fired their guns at Goku. The force of 4 guns became too much – sending Goku shooting back into the fields and crashing down onto the grass in the near distance. Romeo, Link & Juliet, the three Strength members with swords, rushed forward next and ensued to engage the Terminator group. But they had their work cut out as the other Terminators began firing at them – an angry wave of plasma bullets having to be deflected by all three's quick reflexes and sword skills.

And before long, all eight standing members of the Strength of Nine found themselves battling against the Terminators – Icarus flying around and dodging, The Doctor trying to deactivate their electrical circuits with his screwdriver, Harry Potter using his magic abilities to come up with his own energy attacks, Mr. Game & Watch taking advantage of his lack of a third dimension by blocking and collecting up the enemy's energy in his 2D Oil bucket and Snake using what weapons he had on him which in the end provided very little damage on any of the Terminators.

Meanwhile, Stan and the other two boys rushed over to Kyle to help him up and ensure he was OK. "Kyle...you alright dude?" Stan asked – letting Kyle lean on his shoulder.

"Huh...wha...what happened...what's going on?"

"We don't really have time to spend talking dude...come on guys, let's get the hell back inside." Kenny spoke to which Stan helped Kyle up and the four boys attempted to rush back into the castle. However, one of the Terminator robots had managed to detect their movement at the side of his red eyes and had its energy cannon aimed directly at him. Snake was the first one to realise it.

"HEY...YOU FOUR...GET THE HELL AWAY FROM THERE!" He yelled – getting knocked to the floor by a nearby energy blast just as the four boys looked back to see a charged shot heading their way. Icarus was second to spot it and rushed in from the air to grab hold of them – unfortunately, only managing to grab Kenny and Butters and tap the other two to safe distance, still getting a heavy knock from the blast's explosion radius.

"NO......**Creators**!" Juliet cried – taking her attention off her own battle and giving the Terminator next to her a chance to knock her back too. Before long, the other characters began to lose focus and concentration and so too were knocked back by the blasts from the many rail-guns and energy cannons firing at them.

It wasn't long before all characters found themselves picking each other up from off the ground and looking onward helplessly as half of the Terminators moved on to where the four boys lay and the other half stared straight back at them pointing guns at them – ready to fire if they dare move. In the near distance over by the side of the path, the leader Terminator looked down at the four targets and aimed its large energy cannon at the huddle of **Creators **in front of it. The cannon charged and all four were too scared to watch – shutting their eyes tightly together and hoping for at least something. But strangely...and thankfully...something did happen – something neither the boys nor the characters were expecting.

A slice (or maybe even a full-blown swing, perhaps) forced its way through the surrounding sound waves and disappeared again without it ever been detected. The Terminator with the energy cannon remained motionless for a few seconds, before slowly splitting into two perfectly equal halves and silently exploding – small puddles of liquid fuel forming around the metal scrap. Exactly behind it dropped a figure cloaked in black holding a stylized long-sword in his right hand. No one dared to move. The figure slowly stood up – his robe elegantly falling straight again to the cover the entire surface area of his back section. Looking over at the other Terminators, without warning he rushed over and thrashed forward a few more slices through another one of the energy cannon-wielding droids. It wasn't long before the remaining Terminators turned their target eyes to this mysterious sword-wielding figure – blasting their weapons at him, but failing to even come close. Agile as a ninja but as carefully placed as a true swordsman, the figure made easy work of each droid as the metallic monsters soon fell one by one by one. As sword-wielders themselves, even Link, Juliet & Romeo couldn't believe what they were seeing.

Alas, the last Terminator was destroyed and the figure simply remained knelt in post-combat style. As soon as the explosion had dimmed away, he stood back up – slowly and cautiously. The wind around the fields caused his dark black hair to whisk from side to side. Slowly but surely, he made a full 180 degree spin and opened his eyes – and lay sight on the reality of the Strength of Nine and the four **Creators** in front of him. His sword still in hand, he remained silent. Not taking anything for granted every one of the nine got their weapons out and prepared themselves for whatever may come their way. Snake, Link & Mr. Game & Watch moved in front of the four boys for extra defence and careful measures. But to everyone's shock, the figure instead placed his sword back in its scabbard which fitted neatly fastened to his left side to which the nine lowered their weapons and battle stances. Stan and Kyle nudged their way back through to the front and looked at the teen-aged figure in black – the individual returning the same stance. Looking at the two, he focused his gaze further into a sharper expression and looked straight again. "So it begins..." A highly-strengthened adolescent voice spoke – to which he turned back around, sprinted across the fields and jumped incredibly back into the shadows of the forest trees – a few birds taking flight from the onward reaction.

"What...the hell?" Kenny broke the silence.

"Yyyyyeh...seriously..." Kyle agreed.

Snake, looking down and back at the castle placed his M9 back in its holster. "Come on; let's get back into the castle before any more trouble shows up." An action which everybody was glad to agree on.

-

**Author's Comments: You'll be seeing/hearing from him, our mysterious stranger, in the near future that's f'sure. Be sure to keep a focus on him as well, he's just as important a character as everybody else is. Oh, and yes, one other note - Cartman HATES Anime, I'll hazard a guess at that being true.**


	9. Reflection At Moonlight

**Author's Notes: Gee, all this action and suspense of the past few chapters sure has given me a need for a more laid-back end-of-the-day sort of chapter. Hope that's OK with you all...**

**Reflection at Moonlight**

Things had calmed down a hell of a lot more then what it was like several hours ago. The afternoon brightness had given way to an evening mix of pinkish and purple evening sky dotted with stars and the backing of the night darkness. In the encircling outside walkway, Kyle stood leaning on a part of the balcony overlooking the central garden courtyard, which at present, was still full of injured characters but their injuries were already starting to heal. Looking at his hands in a somewhat confused manner, Kyle looked further into the fountain area to see Kenny and Butters helping out with some smaller and minor injuries to characters with the aid of several So9 members. (So9, Kyle thought, was a pretty nifty term for the Strength of Nine group) His dry-felt hands providing the last of their interest, Kyle turned his attention once more to the garden – deciding jokingly to play a little game of 'guess the character' seeing how many he could name on the spot just on his own. In total he managed 7 in the garden area – Tweety Bird, a Squirtle, Inspector Gadget, the archangel Gabriel, Ice Climbers Popo & Nana and one of those human characters out of Digimon – he forgot the name, but he still counted it because he did recognize him, minus the arm brace that the character was now wearing. But the reminding thought of knowing such a thing made Kyle slightly embarrassed – _you still watch kids shows, you freak _he frowned to himself. And as Kyle watched Kenny walking over to that character in particular and making some kind of comedic remark about the size/shape of his hair, Stan came in from the left unexpectedly.

"You alright?"

"Yeh, I'm fine." Lying to him quite easily.

"You don't look it, Kyle."

"No, seriously, I'm fine." The lie started to bite at him.

"Whatever you say, dude…" Stan looked over to the fountain and frowned. "Alright…I'm guessing Ken's going at it again with his mockery jokes over there."

Kyle looked at him and smiled. "Young minds think alike." And Stan smiled back – the sight letting Kyle's lie melt away into nothing more than a tiny itch at the back of his head. Truthfully, Kyle was more worried about the future than he was when they were heading towards the castle. It wasn't just HIM that made up for his reasoned fears, but it was the World (albeit, the Imaginary World to be more exact) that he and the other three found himself in. The one thing for the moment that fuelled this fear was very clear to him – _this place won't be following our World's rule, that's a certainty._

There was a brief pause as the two allowed some time to take in some of the garden sights. The left inner wall was elegantly decorated in stone marble, which in deeper inspection contained a stretch of sculptured plant imagery and what looked like roots forming from it. The right wall meanwhile was home to a scaled down hedge maze with a few twists and turns – outside it, a garden bench or two provided a nice little resting place for those who just wanted to watch the fountain's pretty little dance in the centre.

"Hey, what time is it?" Stan asked – the thought passing neither his nor Kyle's mind. Such a question should have been easily answered with a flick of the hand and a quick stare down. But this was Imaginationland – would the laws of time be different on a daily basis? They had already been told that time on a yearly basis progressed on a ratio of 1:22 between Earth and Imaginationland. So, as Kyle presumed, that must mean that time during the day must be proportionally larger as well. He rolled up his left sleeve and stared down at his bare wrist – not remembering that he woke up in Neo Verona without a watch on. "Oh Christ." He cursed in frustration, making Stan smile a little. "Well, I'm stumped. You?" Looking in the direction of Stan's left wrist (that is, if Stan wore his on the left.)

"Same here – nothing."

"Alright, well, why don't we go and find a clock or sumin, there must be one 'round here somewhere."

"Yeh sure, we're not doing anything anyway." With that said, Stan and Kyle headed off to the left to go and find a clock. Not the most exciting adventure they'd ever had, but at least it was doing something – they'd been stuck standing in the central section of the castle for quite some time and judging by the look of things, nobody from So9 seemed to be coming for them anytime soon. _And if they do, it's their own dam fault for boring us to death here._ The last thought from Stan couldn't be any closer to the truth.

-

Back in the centre area of the garden, Kenny and Butters had finally finished their required duties and found themselves trapped in-between the discussion of two of the most annoying characters in the history of the Universe. Well, that was Kenny's perspective – the same, unfortunately, couldn't be said for Butters.

"Oh boy, I loved that episode." Speaking in sheer delight towards the big-haired character's details of a particular adventure.

"Yeh, that was SOME TIME we had!" Big-Hair spoke in one of those 'OH MY GOD, I feel SO great' kind of tones, as Kenny would and already had, put it. He had come off of a nasty brake in his arm and thanks to the two's quick help and handy application, the character was now well on the way to the healing trail – his broken arm now resting comfortably in a sling that hung around his shoulder. "Good thing we had our partners by our side and the power of friendship."

"Gay"

"Huh?"

"Oh, nothing…" Kenny rushed it off. "Please…continue…" The latter word seemed to sound more sarcastic than the previous – he was getting that bored and yes, annoyed with what this character and his 'partner' were going on about. Kenny had already lost interest by the time he got to 'HI, my name's Tai…'. After that, he seemed to just slip into a state of TL;DR (as Stan would put it, even though Kenny had no idea in the past that it meant **Too Long; Didn't Read**). But in this case, as the two characters went on, it started to feel more like TR;DL – **Too Retarded; Didn't Listen**.

Butters meanwhile was loving it – he couldn't have asked for anything more at a quiet and relaxing time such as this. He'd always wanted a story being told about something he really loved as a kid. And what could be any better than a character from a show he used to watch (and admittedly, still watched whenever his mum and dad weren't around) along with his partner detailing the ups, downs and excitement of one of their most well known adventures. "Oh boy, you sure do know how to beat all those awful bad guys, huh?" would be one of the usual answers he would give whenever the human character stopped talking in his major detailed and excited tone. It was strange, although, that he never had the time to look slightly to his left to see Kenny - sitting on the same wooden-carved bench as he was on - was completely and utterly bored out of his skull. It had come to the point now where Kenny was struggling to keep his own will to live, let alone his drooping head that kept slipping off the palm of his hands.

"Oh God, please END IT, you boring sonofabitch." He moaned – still having the energy meanwhile to keep it in a low tone strangely. "I don't care 'bout your fucking retarded little adventure in goddam Windows 95-World…" To Kenny that's all it was – he didn't have the nerve to give it its 'proper' name even if Butters did.

"Hey Kenny…" Butters whisked him back to the present. "…you alright buddy?"

"Oh yeah…I'm fine…just can't get enough of Mr. Tai's good-ole stories here…"

Tai, nudging his incredibly large goggles up a tad, looked at him and laughed. "…good thing then I haven't told you about the main adventure we had to endure…"

"Yeh, how about we tell you it from the very start?!" Tai's trusted partner, Agumon spoke up to the two – a bandage covering a nasty gash he had suffered on the side of his head.

There was an over-expressed 'OH BOY!' and an under-expressed 'OH GOD!' at that point – it wasn't that hard to figure which statement came from which **Creator**. – and Kenny simply rocked back onto the wooden support, covered his face with his hand and moaned.

"**BEEP-ICK RING."**

"Oh hello there Mr. Game & Watch." Butters looked behind to see the 2D character finally back with Icarus.

"**RING-RING BEEP-EEK BEEP RING-TICK-TICK ICK-EEK BEEP-BEEP RING!"**

"Really, wow that's mighty nice of you."

"W-wait, what?!" Kenny was stunned.

"**BEEP-TICK RING-RING EEK. BEEP-BEEP ICK."**

"Awwww, and I was so looking forward to hearing another adventure. Oh well, if we've been asked to." To Kenny's utter confusion, Butters got up and followed Icarus out of the fountain area and towards one of the perimeter staircases.

Kenny had had enough – it was either now or never to finally get this out of his system. Jumping from off his seat without giving either Tai or Agumon a friendly 'goodbye', he grabbed hold of Mr. Game & Watch's at-present flat shoulder – his hand almost slipping off its nearly invisible surface – looked straight at him and blurted out, "Alright, I've had enough, what the hell is going on here? How come Butters can understand you and I still don't know a fucking word you're saying?" The monochrome character simply looked at him, opened his mouth to express some kind of surprised emotion, turned around and grabbed something from a nearby garden table.

"**EEK-RING…" **He spoke, still aware that he wasn't being understood. **"BEEP-TICK RING RING-BEEP RING." **He passed what looked like a watch over to Kenny who quickly grasped it off him, looked at it with some kind of 'You're kidding, right?' sort of look and looked up at him again. **"RING RING-BEEP TICK!" **He ushered Kenny into putting it on.

"Alright alright, jeez…" Unfastening the strap and wrapping it around his left wrist, the watch-styled device seemed to send some kind of tickly buzz through his arm and all the way to the back of his throat.

"**TICK-EEK BEEP BEEP RING?**" He spoke again, but Kenny simply shrugged and gave him another confused look, just at the exact point where he began to feel the very same tickly buzz swim its way up into his head, which made him feel a little light-headed for a second. Shaking it off, Mr. Game & Watch spoke once more. "**TICK-EEK BEEP BEEP RING? – (Can you hear me now?)**" Kenny's eyes looked like saucers.

"WOAH, WHAT?!"

"**BEEP-TICK, TICK-EEK BEEP BEEP RING? – (I said, can you hear me now?)**" The first two words were proof enough – whatever had happened, the 2D guy was somehow being heard in plain-old English just like any other character here. He couldn't **see **it being said, but he could certainly **hear **it being said. _That's good enough for me, _he gladly stated to himself and gave Mr. Game & Watch a shake of the shoulder and hand, sort of. Whether that was yet more of Kenny's sarcasm or was a genuine handshake of delight, was hard to tell, but Kenny was glad nonetheless that he could finally understand what this character was saying.

"**RING-TICK-BEEP, EEK-EEK BEEP-BEEP. TICK-BEEP RING RING EEK-EEK-EEK? (Well then Kenny, shall we make our way back on up?)**"

"Ummm, yeh…sure?" He still found it odd that he was even given a **response **to him – an actual response, finally! With that finally out of the way, Kenny and Mr. Game & Watch made their way up the same set of garden stairs.

-

"Where do you think we'll be going tomorrow then, dude?" Stan asked over a bowl of surprisingly tasty warm soup.

"How should I know?" Kyle responded – raising his own spoon of his own soup to his mouth and instantly being caught off-guard over what 'hot' actually meant. Stan found a slight laugh in this, but didn't over-do it, thankfully. "We could be anywhere by tomorrow." Finally managing to swallow the mouthful of soup, which he could feel trickling down his throat with a spicy sting. "Castle, fortress, house, weird childish structure, dreamy place, you name it, they've probably got it stashed here."

"Well, not **here.**" Stan pointed his spoon to the ground and smirked.

"No I think I can safely say this place is more of a fantasy-esque adventure setting with a hint of the anime vibe here and there."

"Well, I wouldn't know, I don't watch the stuff."

"I do." Kyle sank his head slightly lower onto the table and got a stronger whiff of his soup.

The time at present was **3:83-Night **as it stated on the clock they had found in the dining chamber not far from where they had set off from earlier on. The theory behind the passage of time in Imaginationland had been, surprisingly, settled quite quickly after studying the face of the clock hanging here. The face itself resembled an Earth clock in pretty much the same style – a circle accompanied by ascending numerical values spanning the entire circumference of the circle. On it, were two arrows – a red arrow and a blue arrow. The blue arrow measured Imaginationland's equivalent of 'minutes'. However, instead of waiting for the arrow to reach 12 for a full minute to be complete (as it was back on Earth), the clock face went up to 10. (or 0 depending on which way you looked at it) The number 0 accompanied top North with 5 positioned opposite at the South point. After that, the other numbers were aligned perfectly around the two so that a perfect sequence of 0-1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9 was arranged. There were 100 'seconds' in an IL 'minute' – with 100 'minutes' making up one IL 'hour'. At every hour, on exactly the hour, the clock face would rotate so that the engraved arrow, which was elegantly decorated in red and blue colour, faced the next number in time. After getting their heads around it, and asking for help also, Stan and Kyle had finally managed to figure out time passage in this place. _100 Seconds = 1 Minute – 100 Minutes = 1 Hour._

Finally, the most important part of the time issue, was the ideaology of IL time being split into 'Day Time' & 'Night Time' as it is on Earth. Once the engraved arrow made its way back to Hour 10 of either Day or Night, the engraving would flip over to give a more night-looking visual and the process would start all over again for the accompanied opposite half of the day. 20 hours made up one IL day, which, in calculation, was 2000 minutes long. As for seconds, both Stan and Kyle didn't really want to know. The good side of it all was that there were only 10 months in a year here. What those months were, and indeed, their IL names, would have to wait for another time.

Kyle still couldn't get his maths and proportions right. _1 Earth year makes up 22 IL years, but if the ratio is split 24:20 in hours and 60:100 in minutes, then that means that the proportions must…GAH, this is all too confusing, even for me…_he pushed his bowl aside after much mathematical annoyance. For the time being, the debate over whether it was mathematically possible would have to wait. As long as they knew how time functioned in this World, both he and Stan he presumed were happy.

"There you two are." A voice called in to them to which they looked up. Romeo & The Doctor made their way over to the table to which there was a lowering of volume around the chamber where other characters were grubbing away also – on much-crowded tables, but still eating nonetheless. "The rooms you'll be staying in tonight are all ready and we feel that it's getting quite late already." Romeo smiled.

"What, but it's not even 4 o clock?" Stan, already gripping the IL time-zone. "Besides, we haven't even finished our soup."

"You can finish that later, for now, it's time for bed." The Doctor called in a more parental tone, which is the exact vibe Stan got from him. _Jesus you sound like my mom. _"Now."

With slight disappointment, the two picked up their bowls and spoons and followed the two characters down the hall and back into the lighter corridors of Castle Moonlight – the rooms that shared a familiar look to its Sunshine counterpart.

Stan and Kyle found themselves heading left, right, straight, right, left and left again to a circular lobby home to four more doors – two to the left wall, two to the right. There, Kenny and Butters were waiting. Stan couldn't recognize them at first, what with their new clothing. But he soon reassured himself that these indeed were the same two guys who like them, were more known for their winter clothing than their, what could only be described as, 'fantasy' clothing. There, standing with them was Link and Mr. Game & Watch.

"Is everything alright?" Romeo spoke first.

"Yes, the castle has finally been put on night defense and the other strength members have already begun their patrol of their areas." Link gave him a reassuring response.

"Good…" The Doctor inhaled deep as if he were about to give a big speech and clapped his hands together. "Right then boys, I say it's time you four get some rest – it's going to be a long day tomorrow, so you'll need as much rest as you can."

"Yes…if you need anything or if something troubles you, please don't be afraid to call on the guards." Romeo pointed back down the corridor to two Tron guards who were positioned on either side of the corridor's end whom gave him a responsive wave and nod.

"**BEEP-EEK-EEK RING, TICK-TICK RING BEEP-BEEP. – (OK then, I guess we'll wish you a good night's sleep then Creators.)**"

"Yeh, I guess so." Kenny responded which shocked Stan and Kyle a little.

"Alright, as for your rooms…" Link began – putting two fingers near his mouth and whistling to which two more characters made their way out of one of the bedrooms…much to Kyle's, and in particular, Stan's annoyance. "These two will help you get settled in here and wish you a final good night's sleep."

"Ummmm……w-wait, hold on a minute, THESE two." Stan pointed to them – the characters oblivious to the obvious problem at hand.

"Yes, is there a problem?" The Doctor asked to which all four looked at one another - Butters doing so just because the other three were – and attempted to rush into their rooms of choosing as a way of saying 'No thanks, we don't need any help, LOOK.' Stan and Butters picked the two rooms on the left, much to Kyle's ashamed annoyance and went for the same room as Kenny had targeted. Kenny, the loser in that battle for the room, watched as Kyle closed the door behind him and was left in now an empty lobby circle with the two new characters staring at him in soulless awe.

"Alright, fine…let's just get this over and d-"

"**HEY, LISTEN!"** The first character – a small little fairy comprised of a lilac blue ball of light and pairs of wings. "Don't you think you should make your way over to your room for the night?"

"Alright, alright, just let me get myself u-"

"HI, it looks like you're trying to pick yourself up from off the floor, **WOULD YOU LIKE SOME HELP?**" The second character – a talking paperclip with eyes, interrupted as well.

"NO, look, I'm fine, I can pick my own arse up from the floor, thank you."

"**HELLO!**" The fairy called over. "**WAKE UP. LISTEN!** Don't you think you should make your way over to your room for the night?" Kenny, annoyingly, walked over and felt the urge to start to strangle that dam fairy. "**HELLO!? HEY, LISTEN!**" The fair apparently could see him flying off-course in the focus department. _Yes, the door is so much more important isn't it?! _He rolled his eyes. He moved towards the door and was interrupted yet again. "**LISTEN!** If you move over to the handle of the door and turn the knob, the door will open inwards for you and you can access the room. Pay close attention to what the action icon says – that's the blue circle at the top of the screen."

"Huh…what the fuck are you talking about?!" Now he really was getting annoyed.

"**HEY, LISTEN!** Don't you think you should make your way over to your room for the night?!" That fairy had said that three times and Kenny felt himself slipping away from his cuffs of self-protection – how he wanted to strangle that fairy oh-so badly now. He tried the knob and was met with a frozen position. The knob wouldn't turn. He tried it again, nothing.

"HEY, it looks like you're trying to open the door to your room, **WOULD YOU LIKE SOME HELP?!**"

"No, fuck off!" He forced himself on the door and even came to slamming against it. But it was no use; the door wouldn't budge.

"HEY, it looks like you're trying to open the door to your room, **WOULD YOU LIKE SOME HELP?!**"

After a little outburst of annoyed grunts and gritted teeth, Kenny sighed the deepest he had done so far and surrendered to it. "Alright fine, yes I WOULD like some goddam help." To which the paperclip gladly moved in front of the knob and used part of its metallic form to grab hold of the knob, and surprisingly, turn it with ease. The door opened. "Oh, for God's sake." Before he took out his rage on either character behind him, he stepped through, slammed the door behind him and walked over to the nearby table.

-

Opposite, Kyle lay looking up at the ceiling of his own room – a blank marble canvas of white nothingness. His clothes, neatly folded across the nearby chair's back, (as always to his standards) Kyle was dressed in nothing more than the shorts he found himself in that very morning. The slight irony was that now that this room was completely and utterly white from floor to ceiling, his shorts looked slightly grayer than white. Even with that slight hindering thought, he still couldn't get to sleep. Instead, he found himself leaning over to the left and watching from his bedside window as he gazed out on view to the nearby purple-hazed lake and surrounding trees. The moon in the distance was a creamier tone now and the night sky started to return to its blackish state in contrast to the purplish style on the opposite horizon. Still, Kyle couldn't take his mind off the one subject that had his mind rattling around – like a lab rat trying desperately to find that last piece of cheese. _Stan_, his mind would buzz brightly like a neon sign in his consciousness. _Viva Las Stan more like, _he smirked again, but returning again to a sighing frown. The next few minutes involved Kyle arguing with the two most powerful sides to his mental side like some kind of boxing match of vocals. In the red corner, the combo of care, the master of friendliness: **Love**. And in the blue corner, the tyrant of trouble, the reeler of reality, **Wisdom**.

_I want to protect Stan with all my heart, isn't that what friends are for? _Love strikes the first blow.

_Indeed, but does that mean showing how you truly feel for him. After all, this concerns more than just 'friendship'. _Wisdom fights back with one hell of an uppercut.

_Well what else am I supposed to do, just sit back and bottle it up?_

_And what if he hates you even more for it, huh? Can't just go back to your friendship status, can you?_

_Of course not, but how am I to know for sure if I don't at least try?_

_You sure want to risk that?_

_Yes._

_Even at the cost of your friendship with that guy?_

_YES._

_Can you do it for him?_

_YES!_

_Can you do it for yourself?_

…_no._

There we have it folks, Wisdom KO's Love after a clash of vocal force – we have a winner! After it all, Kyle was in even more stress than he previously was. Now he really couldn't get to sleep and the night drew ever further on. If Kyle were ever to get past this obstacle of how he truly felt, he would have to believe in himself and get past his own fears of rejection and turmoil.

He got out of bed - strength still in him…just – and made his way to the door. Opening with careful slow speed so as to not alert the guards, he tiptoed over to the corridor opening in bare-feet – trying not to cry out over how cold the stone flooring was. (though freezing would be a more appropriate state at present) Looking around the corner ever-so slowly, he managed to peak a view at the two Tron guards with their backs turned talking amongst themselves with some other passing characters. Taking a deep breath and hoping for the best, he made a rush of faith over the corridor opening and halted right at the furthest corner. Still taking it slowly, he made his over to the second of the left-wall rooms, where Stan lay sleeping several feet on the other side. Squinting his eyes and hoping for the best again, he slowly pushed the door open. The door made s light creaking sound to which Kyle immediately looked back at the corridor. No guard was alerted, thankfully. Looking back through the creak of the door, he saw Stan lying there in his own bed – one arm crossing his chest, the other hanging like a puppet on strings off the side of the bed. For a slight moment, Kyle raised a smile but soon dropped it as if it never existed.

He knew he wanted to get closer, but his mind told him to stay where he was. He was fine with that and simply whispered a little into the blankness of the white room. "Stan…" His mind went blank for a moment – his eyes falling to the floor. He looked back up, "…don't hate me for wanting to care. But don't leave me for wanting to love. I don't want anything to happen to you…" There was a muffling of the guards from down the corridor and Kyle wrapped things up as quickly as possible. "…all I want you to know is…well…I'll be there for you Stan…no matter what…" The muffling became slightly louder and Kyle ended it there – returning the door to its closed position and returning quickly to his own room.


End file.
